Kennydown Farmhouse

KENNYDOWN FARMHOUSE is a farmhouse dating from the 17th century, with possibly an earlier core. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, featuring stone rubble or cob stacks topped with 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched, with corrugated asbestos covering the outshots. The building originally had a three-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south, with the inner room located at the left (west) end. The rear of the passage is now blocked by stairs that rise first as a straight flight and then turn in both directions along the rear wall. There was once a projecting rear lateral stack for the hall and a slightly projecting end stack for the inner room, along with possibly secondary outshots to the rear of the hall and inner room.

The farmhouse has two storeys and an irregular four-window front, which mostly features 20th-century casements without glazing bars, but also includes two first-floor late 19th-century casements with glazing bars. The front door, which is 20th-century, is located to the right of centre and is sheltered by a 20th-century monopitch hood with a corrugated plastic roof. The roof is hipped to the right and gable-ended to the left.

Interior features are largely concealed by 19th and 20th-century plaster, but the original layout remains intact. The crosswalls at either end of the hall are made of cob. The fireplaces are blocked by 20th-century grates, and the crossbeam at the service end is plastered over. The axial hall beam has a rough soffit chamfer and is likely from the late 17th to early 18th century. The crossbeams in the inner room, which date from the 17th century, have broad soffit chamfers with large scroll stops. The roof features late 17th to early 18th-century A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars and X-apexes.