Willis Farmhouse

Willis Farmhouse is a high-status house, formerly a farmhouse, of early 16th-century origins that was substantially remodelled in the late 16th and 17th centuries, with further late 20th-century renovations and an extension added at the left end. It is constructed of whitewashed, rendered cob and stone beneath a thatched roof, half-hipped at the ends. The roof features a projecting rear right lateral stack, an axial stack, and a 20th-century rear left lateral stack.

The house originated as an open hall of at least three bays, probably initially divided into two rooms by low screens with the principal room positioned to the right. Variations in the character of the ceiling beams indicate that the lower (left) end was floored first, around the late 16th century, when a stack was added at the left end of the lower end room. The right end may not have been floored until the 17th century, when a lateral stack was added. By the 17th century, the plan comprised three rooms and a through passage. A small room adjoining the lower end at the left is probably a 17th-century addition, though the dating and status of the unheated inner room remains unclear. Between 1961 and 1986, a one-room extension was added at the left end, creating an overall arrangement of five rooms and a through passage. An unusual feature is the relative sizes of the hall and lower end room, the former being noticeably smaller than the latter.

The house is two storeys tall with an asymmetrical six-window front, the eaves thatch eyebrowed over the first-floor windows. There is a 20th-century glazed front door with glazing bars to the through passage, positioned right of centre, and a large 20th-century stone porch with a tiled roof to the left of centre. Most windows are 20th-century casements with two or three lights and glazing bars, except for one 20th-century ground-floor single-light window with leaded panes. A rear outshut to the lower end has a thatched catslide roof, and a thatched 20th-century porch shelters the rear door of the through passage.

The interior demonstrates good survival of 16th-century carpentry and joinery. The medieval roof is of exceptional interest and importance. It features smoke-blackened side-pegged jointed cruck construction with unusually wide bays between two trusses and a closed truss at the higher right-hand end of the hall, with smoke-blackened plaster infill. The trusses have collars mortised into the principals, which are mortised at the apex with a diagonally-set ridge and wind braces (two of which are missing). The rafters and battens survive complete with smoke-blackened thatch at the right end; the medieval thatch has been replaced at the left end.

A remarkable survival is the medieval louvre arrangement adjacent to the lateral stack of the hall. A triangular piece of timber is fixed behind one of the rafters, with a short piece of timber angled to a broad batten behind the next rafters, forming an escape route for smoke from the open fire. Another structure associated with smoke control is also present, though whether the two features are separate remains unclear. In one section where rafters and battens have been replaced, a vertically-positioned square of wattle has been plastered over, corresponding to a section of plastered-over rafters and battens opposite, on the other side of the ridge. This may have been a pair of gabled louvres, one on either side of the ridge, with the rear louvre largely intact and the front louvre completely plastered over and possibly removed at a later date. The roof carpentry also features small holes through the centre of each collar of the two trusses, possibly associated with centring the trusses during construction.

On the ground floor, plank and muntin screens line the passage; the screen to the hall has head-moulded muntins with some repair. The rear doorway to the passage is framed with a massive oak round-headed doorframe. The hall contains one deeply-moulded cross beam, a similar half-beam, and a fireplace with hollow chamfered ashlar jambs and a chamfered stopped lintel. The lower end has a deeply-chamfered step-stopped cross beam and a large open fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a step-stopped lintel. Both fireplaces contain bread ovens: the hall oven is incomplete, whilst the lower end oven is brick-lined with an iron door.

The position of the early stair is not clear. A 20th-century stair has been installed against the rear wall of the lower end room. A ground plan drawn by A. W. Everett in 1961 describes the inner room as possibly a buttery and marks a blocked doorway between the rear outshut and the lower end room on the rear wall of the room.

This is an important medieval house with remarkable survivals in its roof structure. The adjoining shippon, barn and linhay at the front right, positioned at right angles to the house, have been converted to separate accommodation and are not included in the listing.