Smiths Farmhouse

Smiths Farmhouse is a 17th-century farmhouse, possibly with an earlier core, that was modernized in the late 19th century. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble or brick stacks, some topped with 19th and 20th-century brickwork, including a 17th-century sandstone ashlar chimney shaft. The roof is thatched, with 19th-century brick outshots featuring a corrugated asbestos roof.

The main block faces south and originally comprised three rooms and a through-passage, although the layout is not typical of the late medieval period, appearing wholly 17th-century in its design. The original arrangement consisted of a kitchen at the right (northern) end, a hall/parlour in the center room, and a passage between. The kitchen had a gable-end stack, while the hall/parlour had an axial stack backing onto the left (southern) end room. This downhill end room was originally unheated, likely used as a dairy, but was later fitted with a fireplace backing onto the hall/parlour stack in the 19th century. The original location of the staircase is not known; the current staircase rises to the rear of the hall and was likely installed in the 19th century along with the service outshots.

The main house section exhibits a symmetrical three-window front, remodelled with late 19th-century replacement casement windows with glazing bars, arranged around a front passage doorway that now contains a late 19th-century panelled and part-glazed door. The former dairy wing on the left has similar casements, one on the ground floor and two on the first. The roof is gable-ended to the right and half-hipped to the left. The original hall/parlour stack retains its original sandstone ashlar chimney shaft, topped with 19th-century brickwork.

The interior largely reflects the 19th-century modernisation, but sufficient original 17th-century features remain to indicate that the underlying structure is intact, although much of it is concealed by later plaster. Both original fireplaces are blocked by 19th and 20th-century grates. In the former kitchen, the crossbeam is plastered over, while the one in the hall/parlour is exposed; it is a 17th-century soffit-chamfered beam with bar-scroll stops. The former dairy has an unchamfered axial beam. The roof is supported by side-pegged jointed cruck trusses, although the roofspace is inaccessible.