Blampin Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating to 1617, with 19th-century alterations and modernization circa 1975, the building’s layout and features confirm its early 17th-century origins. The exterior is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings; the north-east end wall was rebuilt in the 19th century using brick, and the stacks are of stone rubble topped with 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched. Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing north-west on level ground, the right (south-west) end room is now the kitchen and has a projecting front lateral stack, constructed circa 1975; this room was formerly an unheated dairy or buttery. The centre room is the original kitchen, with an axial stack backing onto the former dairy/buttery. The rear of the passage is now blocked by the staircase. The left (north-eastern) room is a parlour with a projecting front lateral stack. The house is two storeys high, with likely secondary outshots to the rear of the former kitchen and dairy/buttery. The front has an irregular 3-window facade with 20th-century replacement casement windows with glazing bars. A 19th-century 4-panel door is set behind a circa 1975 conglomerate stone porch with a thatched roof; a small Beerstone plaque inscribed "1617, John Ford" is set within the porch – it was formerly over the doorway. A conglomerate stone buttress with slated offset supports the wall to the left of centre. The thatched eaves rise as eyebrows over the centre and left windows, and higher at the parlour stack. The hipped roof extends to the rear, covering the outshots. Inside, much of the original structure remains. The parlour crossbeam has ogee-fillet mouldings and step stops, and while the original lintel is missing, the fireplace has volcanic ashlar jambs. The partition between the parlour and passage retains fragments of an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The partition to the kitchen has been removed. The kitchen crossbeam is chamfered with run-out stops, and the large fireplace has plastered stone walls with a chamfered oak lintel. The dairy/buttery has a plain chamfered axial beam. Most of the roof structure dates to the 18th or 19th century, supported by A-frame trusses of that period; however, one original closed truss remains, positioned over the kitchen side passage crosswall. It is a side-pegged jointed cruck, filled with a close-studded oak frame with lathes set into individual holes to provide a ladder backing for a cob infill. A doorway near the back wall retains one original chamfered and step-stopped jamb.