Middle Leigh Farmhouse

Farmhouse in Morchard Bishop, dating from the 16th century with major improvements in the late 16th and 17th centuries. The building is constructed of cob with stone rubble footings, some of which have been inserted, and features much stone rubble patching. The chimneys are rubble and cob stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brick. The roof is corrugated iron over thatch.

The house faces south onto the farm courtyard and displays a three-room plan resulting from mid-17th century refurbishment, though some rooms changed function in the 19th century. The building is two storeys high with a gable-ended roof. The present kitchen occupies the right (east) end and was originally the 17th century inner room or parlour, with a mend stack and a rear projecting newel stair turret. The central hall was apparently unheated and now contains an axial stack backing onto the present kitchen, added in the 19th century, though the first floor chamber fireplace may be 17th century. The left (east) room has an end cob stack and was probably the original 17th century kitchen. A 19th century dairy and byre with haylofts were added to the right end.

The front elevation is irregular with three windows of 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars. The doorway is set left of centre in the position of a 17th century window. Both it and the window to its left have 17th century oak lintels with soffit-chamfered details and scroll stops internally. The rear contains a small 17th century oak two-light window in the newel stair turret.

The interior contains predominantly 17th century carpentry detail. The left room, the original 17th century kitchen, has a large rubble fireplace with oak lintel and a blocked side oven doorway. The crossbeam here has plain soffit chamfers. A former oak plank-and-muntin screen between this room and the hall survives only as a headbeam. The hall crossbeam has deep soffit chamfers with bar run-out stops. A rubble and cob crosswall separates the hall from the former inner parlour, containing a late 16th to early 17th century oak Tudor arched doorframe. The inner room or parlour has an axial beam with soffit-chamfered finish and scroll stops, while the joists carry the same finish. The stone rubble fireplace has an oak lintel, its finish unclear, with the left end supported on a shaped oak corbel. In the 19th century a large oven was inserted to the rear and a cream oven to the left side. A blocked doorway of unknown function remains to the left.

The newel stair has stone rubble steps with thick oak treads. Oak doorframes on the landing lead to the principal chambers, that to the hall featuring a chamfered surround with scroll stops. The hall chamber fireplace is blocked but its oak lintel remains visible. First floor doors display plain and sturdy carpentry detail, some possibly older than the 19th century.

The roof over the former inner room or parlour comprises common rafter couples pegged together at the apex without a ridge, supported on purlins slung between the crosswalls. The thatch and rafters are smoke-blackened from open hearth fires, indicating an early 16th century open hall-house origin. The remainder of the roof shows only plastered over truss bases, suggesting an A-frame truss roof construction.