Perhams Green Farmhouse

This is a mid-17th century farmhouse, refurbished in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and modernised around 1970. The walls are plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brickwork, and a thatched roof. Originally a 4-room plan farmhouse facing south, the eastern end originally served as the kitchen, featuring a gable-end stack. This space is now the dining room, with a later kitchen extension built to the rear. Adjacent to the former kitchen is a large entrance hall. To the left of centre is the parlour with a rear lateral stack, and at the left end, a small office with the main staircase behind it. There is no evidence of earlier structural elements than the mid-17th century. A through-passage may have originally connected the front and back walls, screened off from the entrance hall, which may then have been used as a buttery or dairy. Ceiling levels vary across the different rooms. A 20th century staircase has been added to the rear of the entrance hall, while the main staircase dates to the late 17th and early 18th centuries, likely replacing an earlier version. The two-storey house has an irregular four-window front with mostly 19th century casement windows containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. A mid-to-late 17th century oak, flat-faced mullion window remains on the first floor at the right end, featuring an iron-framed casement with a large wrought iron catch enriched with scrolls. The roughly central front doorway has a 20th century part-glazed panelled door, set behind a contemporary thatched porch with trellis sides. The fireplaces have been rebuilt in the 20th century, but otherwise the 17th century structure is well-preserved. The former kitchen and the entrance hall retain chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams. The parlour ceiling is low and may obscure the original structure. The main staircase rises around an open wall; the lower two short flights have been renovated, but the upper, longer flight dates to the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with a closed string, square newel posts, a flat moulded handrail and turned balusters. The roof is original, supported by jointed cruck trusses, likely side-pegged and held by pegged slip tenons, along with pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collars.