Colhayes Farmhouse Including Buildings Round The Courtyard To The North

Farmhouse with three ranges of farmbuildings arranged around a courtyard to the north, dating to circa 1840. The buildings are constructed from local flint rubble with red brick and freestone dressings, with slate roofs. The house has gabled ends with deep eaves, and features two rear lateral brick stacks plus a brick end stack to the kitchen wing. The farmbuildings have brick stacks to two of the ranges.

The complex is planned as a courtyard arrangement. The south-facing house has a service crosswing at the east end, forming a T-shaped plan. An agricultural building adjoins the north end of the wing, and together with north and west ranges of agricultural buildings—a shippon to the north and a two-storey range with stacks to the west—these create an enclosed courtyard with entrances through doorways on the west side, east side, and a second entrance through the east range.

The house is two storeys tall. The south front is symmetrical with three bays plus the gabled end of the crosswing at the right. Deep eaves have paired brackets, with the soffit retaining plaster in places. The brick quoins and dressings to the embrasures are rendered in imitation of rusticated ashlar. A central original panelled front door has a glazed overlight with diamond glazing bars and a flat porch canopy on shaped brackets. Original 12-pane sash windows are set throughout. The gable end of the crosswing has a first-floor 12-pane sash and a blocked or false window below, painted to imitate a sash. A stone shield in the gable may once have carried a date but is now illegible. The left gable end retains curly bargeboards to the verges and two 12-pane sash windows. The right return of the crosswing is three bays with brick dressings to the windows, glazed with 20th-century small-pane timber casements; the ground-floor windows are slightly reduced in size, and the first-floor window left is blind or blocked and painted to match. The rear elevation backing onto the courtyard is gabled left and right, associated with the lateral stacks, and features a round-headed stair window glazed as a sash with margin panes. An original panelled back door opens from the crosswing into the courtyard.

The farmbuildings are equally unspoiled with original openings intact. The east range is lofted and three-bay to the east outer elevation, with a doorway to the left leading through the building into the courtyard. All openings have cut stone dressings. Unglazed three-light timber mullioned windows appear throughout; the first-floor window is left blocked or false and painted to imitate the others. On the courtyard side, the building has an archway and a three-light unglazed mullioned ground-floor window. A slated pentice extends the length of the range, covering the rear door of the house and including a doorway through a wall to the left. The north range is single-storey with five rear north doorways with segmental arches and brick dressings. On the courtyard side, a doorway opens to the right, and a stack sits at the east end. The west range is two storeys with two lateral stacks on the west outer side. It has a loft opening on the west wall, two blocked or false windows on the left south return, and on the courtyard side a symmetrical three-bay east elevation with a central door and two-light unglazed windows. A short section wall with an original doorway links this building to the house.

The courtyard retains its pitched stone paving. The house retains its flint rubble garden wall to the south and a gateway with piers capped in freestone, one cap carved with the letters of the alphabet.

The interior of the house is completely unspoiled apart from the replacement of one chimney-piece. It retains original joinery, a stick baluster stair facing the front door, and a marble chimney-piece with plaster cornice in the left-hand room of the main range. The crosswing is divided between service accommodation to the front (south) and a large farm kitchen to the rear, which retains its original massive fireplace with bread oven and a fine fixed settle rising to the ceiling. A service stair rises from the kitchen.

This is a small 19th-century farm complex in a remarkably complete state of preservation.