Keymelford Farmhouse And Adjoining Cowshed To East

The farmhouse and adjoining cowshed date primarily from the early 16th century, with subsequent alterations and additions in the 17th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The farmhouse is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with cob, stone, and brick stacks topped with 20th-century brick, and a wheat reed thatched roof. It now forms an L-shaped building, with a long main block facing south and a small gable-ended front block at the west end. The original three-room-and-through-passage house, later altered, occupies the left two thirds of the main block, featuring a service room at the west end. A late 17th-century extension adjoins the inner room and a 19th-century cowshed with accommodation and a granary above is located at the right (east) end. A 19th-century block fronts the service room. Stacks are located at the front wing, service room, and late 17th-century extension, with a 20th-century axial stack replacing a former front lateral stack in the hall. The building is now two storeys throughout, featuring a six-window front with 19th-century three-light wooden casements with contemporary glazing. A late 19th-century flat-roofed timber porch with trellis sides, pointed valence, and a shaped arch with pierced quatrefoils shelters the front passage door. The cowshed extension incorporates two doors: one leading to a store with a chamber above, the other to stalls, with external stone steps leading to the granary, both featuring unglazed windows, and a hipped roof. Some original features remain inside, though many are obscured by 19th-century alterations. The passage has been widened, partially blocking the 17th-century hall fireplace and resulting in a new fireplace at the upper end. A plain chamfered crossbeam suggests the hall remained open well into the 17th century. A lower part of the hall roof truss is partly concealed by a first-floor partition, but the apex of the heavy scanthing is exposed. The truss, common rafters, and thatch are heavily sooted from the original open hearth fire, indicating evidence of a former louvre arrangement on the lower side of the truss. An early 16th-century oak window frame, unglazed and featuring four lights with chamfered mullions and pointed heads cut into the headbeam, is exposed externally in the north wall; its survival is rare for open hall windows. Full-height cob crosswalls divide the upper end of the hall and the lower side of the passage. The roofspace above the lower end is inaccessible. A late 16th- to early 17th-century deeply chamfered beam with step stops is visible in the ground floor crossbeam, while the ground floor of the inner room features a 16th-century axial beam with step stops, and the first floor former gable end contains a small oak four-light diamond-mullion window. A late 17th-century three-bay extension features an axial beam with straight cut stops over the ground floor. The cob stack to the front wing may indicate an earlier date than suggested by the internal features. The property represents a good example of a largely unmodernized late medieval farmhouse.