Waterslade Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating from the early or mid-16th century, with later 16th and 17th-century alterations including a significant early 17th-century renovation, and an 18th-century rear block. The construction is mainly stone rubble with plastered chimney shafts topped with 20th-century brick, and a red tile roof to the main block, formerly thatched, with a corrugated iron roof to the rear block.

The plan is L-shaped. The main block has an unusual three-room-and-through-passage layout, facing south. The western end houses a kitchen with a gable-end stack incorporating a winder stair to the rear. The central room was originally a small, unheated dairy, and the partition wall between it and the kitchen has been removed, uniting the two spaces. To the right of the dairy is the passage, leading to a hall or parlour with an axial stack backing onto the passage. The staircase here is a rebuild of an earlier 17th-century one. This layout reflects the early 17th-century renovation. Evidence suggests that the original 16th or mid-16th century house had open roof timbers and a single open hearth fire. An unheated, one-room-plan extension was added to the rear of the hall/parlour in the 18th century. The house is two storeys throughout.

The exterior features an irregular four-window front with 19th and 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is to the right of the centre and contains a 20th-century panelled door behind a contemporary, thatched-roofed porch supported by rustic posts. The roof is gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right.

The interior is well-preserved. The kitchen has a large stone rubble fireplace with a raised, chamfered oak lintel, with rounded corners. A secondary side oven fills part of the left side. To the right of the fireplace is an oak, crank-headed door leading to a newel stair with solid oak baulk stops. The crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with pyramid stops. The kitchen-dairy partition was originally an oak plank-and-muntin screen; only the headbeam remains. The hall/parlour also features a stone rubble fireplace. The oak lintel and axial ceiling beam are both soffit-chamfered with bar-runout stops. The stairs have been replaced, but a crossbeam flush with the chimney breast retains a cranked doorhood, indicating a 17th-century stair existed previously. The roof largely dates to the early 17th century. Lower portions of the trusses are plastered over, revealing a curving shape indicative of jointed cruck construction. An oak-framed closed truss is located over the kitchen-dairy partition. Over the passage, an early or mid-16th-century truss shows smoke-blackening from the original open hearth fire. A couple of smoke-blackened common rafters are visible within the hall/parlour stack. The rear block showcases simpler carpentry detail.