Pound House

This is a small, late 17th-century farmhouse, potentially with an earlier core, and renovated in 1986. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with a stone rubble stack topped with 19th-century brick and a thatched roof, with tile to the cartshed. The house originally followed a three-room lobby entrance plan, facing north-northwest. The centre and left (east) rooms were the primary living spaces, with an axial stack serving back-to-back fireplaces. It's difficult to determine whether the centre room was the parlour or the kitchen. A corridor along the front of the centre room is an original feature, although it now houses a 20th-century staircase. A similar corridor originally ran along the front of the left room, but the partition wall was removed in 1986. The right (west) room is now a kitchen. Prior to 1986, it functioned as a cellar or store, being open to the roof. The house was once divided into two cottages, each with a separate front doorway, leading to speculation that it originally comprised a pair of single-room plan cottages. However, the current owner has unblocked what is believed to be the original lobby entrance, and historical records suggest the property was used as a farmhouse.

The farmhouse is two storeys high and features an irregular arrangement of windows, with two on the ground floor and five on the first floor. These are all 20th-century casements with glazing bars, varying in size and materials – some are timber, some iron-framed, and others uPVC. Thatch eyebrows are positioned above the first-floor windows. The lobby entrance doorway, slightly left of centre, was reopened in 1986, with the insertion of a reused 19th-century door. The roof is hipped at both ends.

The interior retains much original late 17th-century carpentry detail. Both main rooms feature a large brick fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel that has scroll-stopped ends. The rooms also contain chamfered crossbeams with scroll stops; in the left room, one crossbeam end is supported by a post, while in the centre room the crossbeam still rests on the corridor partition. A doorway within this partition retains an original two-fielded panel door. The roof structure comprises three bays. One truss is an A-frame (likely a replacement), and the other is a side-pegged jointed cruck with pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collar. The property represents an interesting example of a small, late 17th-century dwelling.