Trucklegate Farmhouse

Trucklegate Farmhouse is an early 16th-century farmhouse with significant alterations in the 16th and 17th centuries, and some 19th-century changes. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a coated slate roof. The building originally had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan, built on level ground facing south. A small, unheated inner room sits at the east end. The hall features a projecting rear lateral stack. To the lower side of the passage is a narrow dairy and kitchen with a large gable-end stack. The sole surviving original roof truss, located above the hall and inner room partition, is smoke-blackened and indicates the original house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions, and heated by an open hearth. Between the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries, a hall fireplace was inserted, and the house was progressively floored over. The service end was likely built as a kitchen around the mid-17th century.

The exterior presents an irregular 4-window front with late 19th and 20th-century casements, many without glazing bars. A possible 18th-century casement with one light, containing small rectangular panes of old glass in an iron frame, is located to the left of centre. The passage front doorway is roughly central and has a 20th-century part-glazed plank door. The service end front is slightly recessed. The roof is gable-ended. A 20th-century lean-to porch at the back contains a reused 17th-century oak 2-light window with a chamfered mullion.

Inside, oak plank-and-muntin screens line both sides of the through-passage. The upper (hall side) screen is less complete than the lower one, which includes a blocked, shoulder-headed doorway. On the back of the lower screen, the centre and end studs have corbels carved from solid oak, originally supporting the axial beams of the service end before it was rebuilt in the mid-17th century with a new ceiling. The axial beams in the service end kitchen and in the hall are soffit-chamfered with run-out stops. The kitchen fireplace is blocked, and an adjacent alcove may have been a walk-in curing chamber. The hall fireplace is also blocked, and its soffit-chamfered oak lintel remains, although a projecting ledge has been cut off. The hall/inner room partition is plastered over; a farmer reported an arch-headed doorway has been removed. The original side-pegged jointed cruck truss over the partition is plastered over. It was originally open and shows signs of smoke-blackening from the original open hearth fire. The remainder of the roof was replaced at a higher level in the 19th century.