Freathingcott Farmhouse

Freathingcott Farmhouse

A farmhouse of early 17th-century date with 19th-century modernisation. The building is constructed of plastered stone rubble and cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble chimneys and a slate roof, originally thatched. It is positioned on a steep slope with the main block facing south.

The house follows a 1-plan form with a three-room-and-through-passage arrangement, though not of the usual late medieval type. The parlour occupies the left (west) end on the lower side of the passage and has a gable-end stack. The hall or dining room is positioned on the upper side of the passage with an axial stack backing onto an unheated room at the right (east) end. A rear block projects at right angles from the right end service room and contains the kitchen with a large gable-end stack and an adjoining curing chamber that projects further to the rear. Integral outshots across the back of the main block originally housed dairies but have since been converted to domestic use. The main staircase rises to the rear of the hall in the angle between the two wings. The house is two storeys high with an original cellar beneath the parlour, all forming a single phase of construction.

The south-facing front is irregular with four windows. The three-window section to the left, serving the principal rooms and nearly symmetrical around the central passage doorway, features 19th-century windows: to the left a 16-pane sash over a low cellar doorway, to the right tripartite sashes with central 12-pane lights, and above the doorway a 12-pane sash. The main doorway is original, with an oak frame of ovolo-moulded surround containing a contemporary studded plank door with moulded coverstrips and ornate strap hinges. The gabled porch is also 17th-century, with the oak lintel of the outer doorway soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. At the right end of the front are 20th-century casements with glazing bars. Further casements appear to the rear, though there remains a small 17th-century oak-framed window to the curing chamber and an oak-mullioned window of the same date to one of the former dairy outshots.

Interior: Where exposed, the carpentry detail is consistently 17th-century, though much is concealed by 19th-century plaster. All crossbeams, including those spanning the first-floor bedchambers and cellar, are soffit-chamfered with lambstongue stops. The hall and parlour fireplaces are blocked by 19th-century grates, whilst the large kitchen fireplace remains open with a replacement oak lintel. The division between service room and kitchen was relocated circa 1960 to enlarge the service room. Remains of the 17th-century doorframe with ovolo-moulded surround survive between service room and hall. Other doorframes carry 19th-century architraves and most joinery detail is 19th-century in date, including the pretty splat baluster staircase. The hall retains an original oak shaped bench end against the passage partition.

The roof comprises clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with dovetail-shaped pegged lap-jointed collars. Despite substantial concealment of the structure by 19th-century plaster, the 17th-century house appears to survive remarkably intact. It is of considerable interest for its transitional plan form, marking the progression from medieval to modern domestic arrangement.