Leaches Farmhouse

Leaches Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the 17th century, with possible earlier origins, and incorporating later 17th- to early 18th-century and 19th-century alterations and a 18th-century rear extension. The main structure is largely plastered cob on exposed rubble footings, with some plastered rubble; it has cob or stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a thatched roof. The farmhouse originally comprised a four-room plan, with a kitchen at the right (south-western) end, likely added in the late 17th or early 18th century. The remainder of the building probably developed from a three-room-and-through-passage house, with a former inner room at the left (north-eastern) end, although the location of the through passage is not readily apparent. The inner and service end rooms have end stacks, with the latter now axial to the kitchen stack built against its rear. The hall has an axial stack to the left, backing onto the inner room. A 18th-century service wing extends at right angles to the rear of the service end room, with later outshots on either side.

The front of the farmhouse has two storeys and a symmetrical four-window arrangement on the left three rooms, with the right end (kitchen) being blind. A shallow, projecting pilaster of plaster, incised to resemble ashlar, marks the break between the kitchen and the main house. All windows are 19th-century 12-pane sashes with plain flat stucco architraves, except for an 8-pane sash on the ground floor left, to the left of a late 19th-century four-panel door with a contemporary porch. The porch has rubble walls, a slate gabled roof, original bargeboards, and a segmental outer arch surmounted by a Bathstone plaque bearing the crest of the Earl of Portsmouth. A late 17th- to early 18th-century two-light flat-faced mullion window with contemporary internal shutters hung on H-hinges is situated at the rear of the hall on the first floor. The rear block is lower and has a 20th-century door; a first-floor casement under a hipped end to the roof, and half dormers and a row of pigeon holes on the northeast side.

The partially modernised interior displays features from various periods. An early 17th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen is visible at the lower end of the hall. The hall has a roughly-chamfered crossbeam supported to the rear by an oak post with chamfered and scroll-stopped corners. A roughly 17th-century rubble fireplace at the upper end of the hall has a plain oak lintel, and to the right rear is a late 17th- to early 18th-century full-height cupboard with panelled doors on early H-hinges. 19th-century plaster covers the earliest features in the putative inner room. A chamber above the inner room includes some 17th-century oak small-field panelling. The service room/entrance lobby was refurbished in the late 18th century with a moulded dado and timber chimneypiece; another is in the chamber above. The kitchen is open to roof of A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars, likely late 17th or early 18th century, and has a contemporary kitchen fireplace with a plain oak lintel and an inserted or relined brick oven. The main block's roof comprises two types: the hall and inner room have 17th-century A-frame trusses with pegged shaped lap-jointed collars, and the service end room has plainer 18th-century A-frame trusses with an X-apex. The rear block has plain carpentry detail, and the roof is inaccessible.