Preston Farmhouse

Preston Farmhouse is a farmhouse built in the early or mid-16th century with major improvements undertaken in the later 16th and 17th centuries, and some alterations made in the late 19th century. It is constructed of local stone and flint rubble, with stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brick, and has a thatched roof.

The building is of L-plan form, with the main block facing onto the farmyard to the north-east, built across the hillslope. It follows a 4-room-and-trough-passage plan. The north-west end contains a former parlour now used as an agricultural store, presumably once heated by an end stack that was demolished when the space was converted to farm use. Between this room and the hall is a small heated chamber served by an axial stack backing onto the passage. The south-east end is the former service kitchen with a gable-end stack. A 2-room service block projects at right angles to the rear of the kitchen.

The roof is largely inaccessible, making it difficult to determine the early structural development, but evidence suggests the house began as an open hall house heated by an open hearth, possibly occupying only the south-east half of the main block. Straight joins in the front and back walls support this theory. The present form largely results from an extensive early 17th-century refurbishment that probably involved lengthening the main block at the former parlour end. The hall and parlour were at that time separated by a small unheated room, likely a buttery or cellar. In the 19th century, the parlour at the end was taken out of domestic use, the buttery was converted to a parlour, and a new axial stack was inserted to heat it.

The farmhouse is 2 storeys throughout. The exterior has an irregular 4-window front of 20th-century casements, the latest without glazing bars, plus one earlier first-floor window at the right end with flat-faced mullions that may date to the 18th century. This window lights the disused chamber over the 17th-century parlour, now used as a hayloft. The passage front doorway is left of centre, containing a 19th-century plank door behind a 20th-century gabled porch. The main roof is gable-ended and the rear block is half-hipped.

The interior is largely the result of 19th and 20th-century modernisations, but exposed early carpentry is consistently early 17th-century, with some 16th-century features suspected but hidden. The larger of the two rear service rooms has a crossbeam with deep chamfers and step stops. The kitchen in the main block contains two chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams and a large kitchen fireplace which is blocked, though its chamfered limestone ashlar jambs and oak lintel remain exposed. The hall features an oak plank-and-muntin screen at the upper end with muntins chamfered with cut diagonal stops. The ceiling consists of 9 panels of intersecting deeply chamfered beams. The fireplace in the hall is blocked. The former buttery, now used as a parlour, has a deep-chamfered crossbeam. The former parlour, now an outhouse, also has a 9-panel ceiling of chamfered intersecting beams, and the headbeam of an oak plank-and-muntin screen is visible in the partition between this room and the rest of the house.

The roof is mostly inaccessible, but where visible it is carried on side-pegged jointed crucks showing below the ceiling. Over the former parlour, the roof can be examined in detail, revealing trusses with cambered collars and clean joinery. This end is thought to be an early extension, and other parts of the roof may be earlier, potentially providing evidence of the house's earlier structural history.