Burnthouse Farmhouse Including Garden Walls To West And South

Burnthouse Farmhouse is a farmhouse, likely dating from the late 17th century, with alterations made in the 19th century. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with cob and stone rubble stacks topped with 19th-century brick, and has a thatched roof. The farmhouse originally comprised three rooms and a through-passage plan, facing south-southeast. The passage is situated to the west of the centre, with the left-hand room serving as the kitchen. The middle room was an unheated lobby and likely a former dairy, with a corridor along the rear. The right-hand room was originally the parlour. Both end rooms have axial stacks. There are likely secondary outshots at the rear. The main house is two storeys high and has a four-window front, featuring similar late 19th-century to early 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. The left-hand three-window section is arranged symmetrically around a front passage doorway, which contains a 20th-century plank door and a contemporary half-hipped, thatched-roof porch supported by rustic posts. The roof is gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right, extending continuously over the rear outshots. The interior retains a well-preserved original plan, despite 19th-century modernisation and plastering. In the kitchen, an original soffit-chamfered crossbeam is exposed, and the fireplace is blocked by a 19th-century grate, though its large size is evident. An oven that originally projected into the room on the right, and a cupboard to the left which may have been a walk-in curing chamber, are also visible. The farmer reports that the oven had an external doorway, suggesting the presence of a bakehouse at one time. The lobby (former dairy) shows no original carpentry, and in the parlour, the crossbeam is boxed in and the fireplace is blocked by a 20th-century grate. The roofspace remains uninspected but the feet of the principals suggest the survival of original A-frame trusses. Much of the joinery detail is 19th and 20th century, but some earlier plank doors remain, hung on strap hinges. The front garden is enclosed by low 19th-century boundary walls built of attractive flint rubble with rounded weathered coping and punctuated by square piers with pyramidal caps, which are also used as gate piers. Burnthouse Farmhouse is a relatively small 17th-century farmhouse with an interesting plan, appearing to be built as a single structure. The farm’s name may suggest that an earlier farmhouse was destroyed by fire.