Brinscott

This is a farmhouse dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, extensively renovated in the late 19th century. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble stacks and chimney shafts topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a slate roof, originally thatched.

The house has a T-plan layout. The main block faces south-west and originally comprised two rooms with a through passage between. The left-hand room had a service end kitchen with a large gable-end stack. A 19th-century staircase was later inserted alongside the passage. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. In the 19th century, the end room was rebuilt as an unheated two-room crosswing. While the roof’s history is uncertain due to inaccessibility, it is believed that the hall originally had an open roof, possibly heated by an open hearth fire. This fireplace was likely inserted in the mid to late 16th century, with the hall being floored over in the late 16th or early 17th century. The service end was later rebuilt as a kitchen in the mid-17th century. The house is two storeys high.

The exterior has an irregular front with 19th and 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. A hall window has been enlarged into a French window. The roughly central front door is within a 17th-century oak doorframe with a chamfered surround, now containing a 20th-century door and a gabled porch, both also 20th century. The roofs of both wings are gable-ended.

Inside, on the lower side of the passage, a length of 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen remains, with chamfered muntins featuring cut diagonal stops. The service end, formerly the kitchen, has crossbeams with deep soffit-chamfers, one including scroll stops. The fireplace here was blocked in the 20th century, incorporating a 19th-century chimneypiece. On the upper side of the passage, behind the back of the hall stack, a 16th-century oak two-centred arch doorway has been cut to accommodate a square-headed door. The large hall fireplace is constructed of chert rubble and has a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The ceiling is an eight-panel intersecting beam ceiling with moulded beams. Other 16th and 17th-century carpentry may remain concealed beneath later plaster. The roof space is inaccessible, and although the roof may have been replaced, the owner believes some original timbers may remain.