Cuckoobush

Cuckoobush is a farmhouse, now a house, dating from the 16th century and remodelled in the late 17th century. It is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with stone stacks topped with 19th-century brick. The front has a concrete pantile roof, while the rear is covered with corrugated asbestos, which was formerly thatch. The building has a two-room plan with a central cross passage that connects the front door to a stair in a turret that projects to the rear. It has gable-end stacks and faces southwest.

The house is two storeys high and features a balanced three-window front with 19th and 20th-century two and three-light wooden casements, all of a consistent style and with glazing bars. The central door is located under a 20th-century open-sided timber porch with a hipped roof made of shingles. The right-end stack retains its original volcanic ashlar chimney shaft, which is topped with 19th-century brick.

Inside, there is a 17th-century service room beyond a cob cross wall to the left (northwest) of the passage, and a parlour to the right. The service stack has both its ground and first-floor fireplaces blocked. The parlour features an ogee-moulded crossbeam with ornate scroll stops and an exposed volcanic ashlar fireplace with a chamfered and straight-cut stopped oak lintel. The stone winder stair is now concealed by pine treads and risers.

A simple ornamental plasterwork on the cob wall of the passage has a moulded surround with a simple fleur de lys motif and records the date 1695 along with the initials I M A. This is likely a reset feature, probably from a chimney breast. The roof over the parlour is supported by two boxed-in, possibly jointed cruck trusses of large scantling. In the roof space, the parlour roof is smoke blackened, suggesting that the house may have originally extended further to the southeast. It appears that the former passage and service room were demolished in the late 17th century, a cross passage was inserted to the upper end of the hall, the inner room was converted for service use, and the house was refurbished throughout.