Lower Bridge Farmhouse

A farmhouse dating to the early 16th century, with significant alterations in the later 16th and 17th centuries. The house is constructed primarily of plastered cob on a rubble foundation, with some plastered stone rubble. It retains stone rubble stacks, one of which is disused, while the other has a chimney shaft made of 19th and 20th century brick. The roof is thatched, with a small section at the rear replaced with corrugated asbestos.

The original design was a four-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south, with the inner room situated at the west end. The service end was reconfigured during the 19th century and may have originally been a large single room. The original roof extends to the present-day eastern end, now encompassing a service room with a chamber above and a stable with hayloft. The hall has a projecting lateral stack on the front, and the inner room features a disused end stack. The two-storey house has an irregular five-window front. The windows consist of a variety of 19th-century casements with glazing bars, and a 19th-century horizontal sliding sash with glazing bars in the hall chamber. A 20th-century door is located in the front passage. The stable has a 19th-century door with an unglazed window to the left, and a loading hatch to the hayloft above. The gable-ended roof has eaves that extend slightly over the stable.

The interior exhibits good original features, largely concealed behind 19th-century plaster. Full-height cob crosswalls are present on the lower side of the passage and at the upper end of the hall. The exposed roof demonstrates original timbering; in the hayloft, one truss is fully visible. This is a side-pegged jointed cruck of large scantling, with a straight collar and principals that stop short of meeting at the apex, creating a notch for a diagonally set ridge. A hip cruck remains in the end wall. The hall has a two-bay roof, and while the lower portions are plastered, it appears to be of identical construction to the cruck roof, apart from a cambered collar. The hall roof, including rafters and thatch underside, is heavily sooted, indicating the inner end was historically inaccessible. The service end roof is clean. The dating of the flooring for the inner room and service end is unclear; no original beams are visible in the former, while those in the latter appear to be 19th-century replacements. A 16th-century chamber was likely built over the passage, jetting into the lower end of the hall, where its richly moulded bressumer is exposed, with broad step stops. The hall fireplace, also probably late 16th century, is blocked but still imposing. The hall was likely fully floored in the 17th century, though the ceiling structure is now plastered over. The fireplace in the inner room is blocked.