Lower Living

Lower Living is a house that was originally a farmhouse, dating from the late 15th century to early 16th century, with improvements made in the 16th and 17th centuries and extensions in the 18th century. It was modernised between 1976 and 1984. The structure is made of plastered cob on rubble footings, with some brickwork, and features cob, dressed volcanic stone, and brick stacks. The roof is covered with pantiles and is hipped at both ends, having originally been thatched.

The house was originally designed with a three-room and through passage plan, including a service room to the east, which is to the right of the south-facing front. Both the service and inner rooms were rebuilt and extended in the 18th century, and the internal arrangement has been altered multiple times. It is now a long, low building that is two storeys throughout. There is a 16th-century stone lateral stack projecting from the rear of the hall, along with 18th-century cob and brick lateral stacks for the outer rooms at the front.

The front of the house features six windows, which are 19th and 20th-century casements of various sizes and irregular placements. There is a central four-light window in the hall, with the position of a blocked passage door thought to be nearby to the right, opposite a clearly blocked door in the unplastered rear wall. The current doors were inserted in the 18th century, and there are three dormers on the first floor.

Inside, the house reveals a complex structural history. The hall has a roof with two bays that is smoke-blackened, supported by side-pegged, jointed cruck trusses. A massive 16th-century stone fireplace with an oak lintel and wave-moulded surround is located at the rear of the hall. The first floor features a low oak plank and muntin screen with a plastered frame above, indicative of the late 16th to early 17th-century flooring of the hall. The lead beam of the presumed lower passage screen has 16th-century stops. The lower end of the house has an 18th-century double fireplace, and the roof and beams in the inner room appear to have been extended and rebuilt around the same time. It is said that the house housed three cottages and a forge in the 19th century.