Catlake Farmhouse

Catlake Farmhouse is a farmhouse with origins dating back to the early 16th century, undergoing significant remodelling in the early 17th century, alongside some 19th-century rebuilding and a re-roofing in the 1960s. The exterior is primarily cob on stone rubble, with colourwashing and rendering to the front elevation, and an asbestos slate roof (formerly thatched) with gabled ends. It features a left-end stack, a front lateral stack with set-offs, and a rear lateral stack.

The house’s plan currently comprises a single-depth main range, four rooms wide, with an approximately central front door leading into a stair hall. An internal jetty at the right end indicates that the original house was an open hall. While the precise extent of the medieval building is unclear, the lower end seems to have been remodelled or rebuilt in the 19th century. A beam dated 1630 on a jetty at the right end of the house suggests the inner room may have been floored at that date, with the hall potentially floored subsequently in the 17th century, although the date could alternatively refer to the flooring of the inner room. Around the early 19th century, the house appears to have been divided into two sections: the lower end may have been rebuilt at this time and extended by a single-room addition at the left end, and a stair was inserted into the passage. A straight stair was added against the rear wall of the 17th-century hall. Passage now provides access between the two halves via service rooms and a rear lean-to. A blocked doorway from the former cross passage remains, leading into the higher end.

The farmhouse has two storeys and an asymmetrical five-window front. A wide 20th-century front door, under a flat porch canopy on brackets, now occupies the position of the former through or cross passage. Various 20th-century casement windows are present.

Inside, the 17th-century hall is largely intact, featuring an open fireplace with a chamfered lintel and ovolo-moulded cross beams with bar step-hollow stops. A plank and muntin screen separates the hall from the inner room; the chamfered and stopped muntins run to the level of what was likely a hall bench, which is now a replacement fixed with nails. A deep jetty above the screen bears the date 1630 and the initials NB. The other ground floor rooms are plain. A 19th-century iron grate and stick baluster stair with a ramped handrail and replaced newel are located to the left of the former passage. The dated jetty beam is unusual; its reference could argue for a later date for the hall’s flooring or alternatively be related to the flooring of the inner room.