Beer Farmhouse

This is a former farmhouse, dating to the early 17th century or possibly earlier, with some 19th-century refurbishment and 20th-century renovations. The construction is of colourwashed rendered cob and stone, with a slate roof that is gabled at the ends. It features a right-end stack and an axial stack.

The original layout comprised a three-room and cross-passage plan, with the lower end located to the right. This plan remains largely intact, however a 19th-century stair has been inserted into the passage and a single-room plan addition was built at the right (lower) end. The hall stack is positioned against the former passage. The lower end room, originally heated from a stack on the right wall, is slightly larger than the hall and may have functioned as a parlour. The room at the left end is unheated and has been used as a dairy. The building utilizes jointed cruck construction, suggesting a possible early 17th-century modernization of a late medieval house, though this remains unproven without access to the roof apex. The 19th-century addition at the right end served as a back kitchen and has been further extended to the front in the 20th century.

The two-storey front has an asymmetrical arrangement of four windows. An approximately central plank front door leads into the former passage. The three right-hand ground floor windows are 20th-century replacements; the remaining windows are early 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars. The rear elevation has no windows.

Inside, there is good survival of early 17th-century carpentry and joinery. The three ground floor rooms retain chamfered scroll-stopped axial beams; the hall (to the left of the front door) also exhibits exposed joists. The lower end room features an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a scroll-stopped lintel, accompanied by chamfered half beams against the rear and front walls, supported by timber brackets. A remnant of a plank and muntin screen remains in the lower end room, originally partitioning it from the passage; the muntins are chamfered with straight cut stops. The hall has an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a timber lintel that was partially cut back during post-17th-century alterations. A rounded-shouldered chamfered doorframe connects the hall to the inner room. The 19th-century stair in the passage necessitated the removal of flooring, and exposed joists remain visible in the cupboard beneath the stairs. The first floor rooms are accessed from a first-floor stair landing, and the two left-hand rooms still open into one another. Two side-pegged jointed crucks are visible in the first-floor rooms, potentially dating back to a late medieval open hall phase.

This is an early 17th-century vernacular farmhouse, notable for its numerous interior features of interest.