Great Foldhay Farmhouse

Great Foldhay Farmhouse is a farmhouse that includes work from the late 16th century to early 17th century in its rear section, with rearrangements, alterations, and extensions made around 1830. The building is constructed of plastered cob and stone rubble, featuring stone rubble stacks topped with 19th-century brick chimney shafts, and has a corrugated asbestos roof, which is said to have originally been thatch. The house has a double depth plan and faces south.

The front range, entirely from around 1830, consists of a room with end stacks on either side of a large central entrance hall and stairway. The rear range appears to include a hall, passage, and service room from a late 16th to early 17th century three-room-and-through-passage plan. The inner room was demolished when the front range was added, relegating the rear rooms to service use. The hall features a projecting rear lateral stack with an added 19th-century oven projection.

The farmhouse is two storeys high and has a symmetrical three-window front from circa 1830, with outer 16-pane sashes and a central first-floor 12-pane sash above the front door. The entrance has panelled double doors with a classical doorcase that is missing its entablature. Both roofs are half-hipped at each end, and most windows on the sides and rear are original 19th-century designs.

The interior largely reflects a 19th-century refurbishment, preserving much of the circa 1830 joinery, including an open string stair with stick balusters and a ramped mahogany handrail. However, the rear block retains some late 16th to early 17th-century features. The hall fireplace is blocked, but the front of a large late 16th to early 17th-century fireplace is visible, with sides made of ashlar stone (painted over) and an oak lintel featuring an ovolo-moulded surround. The passage has a stone flagged floor, and there are two 17th-century oak panelled doors with scratch-mouldings and original iron catches, which may have been reset. It is unclear if other late 16th or 17th-century features are concealed behind 19th-century plaster. Both parallel roofs are six bays with 19th-century king post trusses that reuse several 16th-century chamfered and smoke-blackened purlins. Despite the fragmentary survival of the older range, this remains an interesting house.