Little Southdown Farmhouse

Little Southdown Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, significantly refurbished in the early 20th century. The walls are plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble and cob stacks topped with 20th-century brick, and a slate roof. Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing southeast, it features an inner room parlour at the southwest end with a projecting gable-end stack. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the former passage. In the early 20th century, the partition of the passage was removed, combining the passage and a small unheated service room to create the current kitchen. A new staircase was added to the parlour, rising along the hall crosswall, and a second front doorway was inserted directly in front of it. The roof was also replaced. It appears the house started as an open hall house, likely heated by an open hearth fire, with the cob hall stack likely inserted in the late 16th or early 17th century, and the hall floored around the same or slightly later time. The house is now two storeys high. The exterior has an irregular 4-window front with 20th-century casement windows without glazing bars. The passage front doorway is right of centre and contains a 20th-century part-glazed door, with another similar door further to the left. The left (parlour) gable-end stack includes a stone plaque inscribed “WH 1796,” though no features date back to that time. A small window, previously serving a staircase or chamber closet, is located alongside. Interior features include a large parlour with a 3-bay ceiling carried on 17th-century crossbeams with deep soffit-chamfers with run-out stops. The parlour fireplace is blocked by a 20th-century fireplace. A cob crosswall separates the parlour and hall. The hall fireplace was reduced in depth in the 19th century but retains its oak lintel supported on posts with a chamfered surround. The hall ceiling consists of 8 panels of richly-moulded intersecting beams. All joinery detail is from the 20th century.