Middle North Coombe Farmhouse

Farmhouse. It likely dates from the late 17th or early 18th century, and may have been remodelled from an earlier building, with later 20th-century renovations. The construction is probably cob and stone, with a whitewashed and rendered exterior. The left-hand wall was rebuilt after collapse in the 1930s. The roof is thatched, with a gable at the left end and a hip at the right end, and includes end stacks. The unusual plan features a single-depth arrangement with heated rooms on either side of a central entrance, leading to an axial passage. This passage runs parallel to the front wall, with unheated service rooms behind it. A straight staircase connects the passage to the room on the right. This room has served as a kitchen and has a small, probably later, outshut with a catslide roof at the rear. The plan may represent a modification of a 17th-century three-room and passage layout. The exterior has an asymmetrical front with four window bays, featuring a 20th-century thatched, boarded porch to the right of centre and a doorway to the extreme right leading into a store room. The windows are 20th-century timber casements. Inside, the right-hand room has a chamfered cross beam with run-out stops, and an open fireplace with a roughly-chamfered scroll-stopped lintel. The left-hand room was not inspected. Plank partitioning is found in the service rooms. The roof was not inspected, but it is said to have straight principal rafters to the old roof trusses.