Carscombe Farmhouse

Carscombe Farmhouse is a farmhouse with origins dating from the early to mid 17th century, which was re-roofed and extended in the 18th century. It has undergone substantial alterations in the 20th century. The building is constructed of whitewashed rendered cob and stone rubble, topped with a thatched roof that is half-hipped at the right end and at the front end of the crosswing, and hipped at the rear of the crosswing. There is a front lateral stack, a rear left corner stack to the main block, and a stack at the front end of the crosswing.

The farmhouse has a single depth two-room plan for the main range, with a crosswing at the left end and a 20th-century rear left lean-to. The main range may have originally been a two or part of a three-room plan with a through passage. The right-hand room is heated from the lateral stack, while the left-hand room, which is a mid-17th-century parlour, is heated from the rear left corner stack. There is some evidence suggesting that the two rooms may have been separated by a through passage, indicated by a former doorway on the front and an opposed rear door, although this evidence is limited. The crosswing is likely an 18th-century addition that was previously used as a poultry house and is now utilized as a kitchen and service rooms.

The exterior of the farmhouse is two storeys high with an asymmetrical three-window front, where the eaves thatch is eyebrowed over the first-floor windows. There is a semi-circular bread oven located to the right of the centre stack. The windows are 19th and 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars, and the window to the left of the stack was formerly a doorway. The entrance is now into the wing, which features one ground floor and one first floor 20th-century timber casement.

Inside, the farmhouse has been significantly altered. The partition or partitions between the two principal rooms have been removed. There is an open fireplace in the lateral stack with a chamfered timber lintel and a chamfered crossbeam. The left-hand room contains a possibly re-sited ovolo-moulded axial beam, and a section of a good 17th-century ovolo-moulded plank and muntin screen has been re-sited in the crosswing. The roof trusses over the main range date from the late 17th to early 18th century and feature cranked collars that are halved and pegged onto the principals.