Rowes Farmhouse

Rowes Farmhouse is a house, formerly a Church House, dating to the early 17th century, with substantial refurbishment and enlargement in the mid-19th century. The main block is built of plastered cob on exposed rubble footings, with stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick. Originally, the house followed a three-room plan facing south, without a through or cross passage. A small inner room was present at the west end, and a central hall included a front lateral stack. These rooms have now been combined. A parlour with a now-disused projecting end stack stands at the east end. A stair block, built at right angles to the main house, extends to the rear of the hall and parlour, while a 19th-century service wing is set at right angles to the rear of the hall and inner room.

The front of the house presents a three-window arrangement of 20th-century casements with glazing bars, intended to create a sense of symmetry. A curving bay window has been added to the ground floor on the right. Other windows feature exposed oak lintels. A centrally positioned 20th-century door with a side light is sheltered by a large, contemporary porch with a hipped thatch roof. A slightly projecting hall stack to the left of the doorway incorporates a secondary oven projection of exposed rubble and a tall brick chimney shaft.

The roof is gable-ended, as are the roofs of the stair block and wing. The stair block includes a tall, round-headed sash with glazing bars, renewed around 1980, along with a smaller, similar window inserted into the end wall. The left side wall retains remnants of an early 17th-century oak 2 or 3-light window, with one chamfered mullion surviving and only one light exposed.

The interior retains several original 17th-century features. An oak plank-and-muntin screen, featuring chamfered and scroll-stopped muntins and the jambs of the original rear doorway (ovolomoulded and scroll-stopped on the hall side), separates the hall and parlour. Only the headbeam of a similar screen remains between the hall and inner room. The hall’s crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. The hall fireplace has been substantially rebuilt and now features a replacement timber lintel. A halved beam across the end wall of the former inner room is also soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. The parlour's crossbeam has a broad soffit chamfer with scroll stops, and the fireplace is constructed of volcanic ashlar with an oak lintel possessing a rebated ogee soffit moulding. The staircase is a 19th-century replacement with stick balusters, turned newels, and a mahogany handrail. The stair block roof is supported by an original A-frame truss with pegged dovetail lap-jointed collars. The stair head showcases original double doorways; one ovolo-moulded with scroll stops leading to the master chamber above the parlour, and the other chamfered with scroll stops leading to the hall chamber. The first-floor large-framed partitions do not directly align with the ground-floor screens. The roof of the master chamber includes a crudely moulded plaster cornice, incorporating a frieze of continuous St Andrew's crosses, likely reflecting the house’s former association with the nearby church.