Lower Wotton Farmhouse

Lower Wotton Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the late 17th century, with alterations and an extension made in the 19th century. It is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with stone rubble or cob stacks and plastered brick chimney shafts, topped by a thatched roof. The main block faces southeast, with rear blocks projecting at right angles from each end. The block on the northeast side was added in the 19th century as an agricultural store. Originally, the front block had a three-room plan, with the central room heated by a rear lateral stack. In the 19th century, a lateral stack was inserted into the small left end room, and in the 20th century, the central and left rooms were combined. The left (southwest) rear block is the original kitchen block with an end stack, and the stairs are a 19th-century replacement of the originals. The farmhouse is two storeys high and features a balanced two-window front with 20th-century casements with glazing bars on the ground floor and 19th-century casements with glazing bars on the first floor. There is a 20th-century plank door with a contemporary gabled and thatch-roofed porch to the right. The roof is hipped at each end, while the kitchen wing has a slightly lower gable-ended roof that includes a half-dormer casement window. The 19th-century addition is also gable-ended and features original unglazed windows with internal shutters. The end wall has a ground floor door and external stops for a first-floor loading hatch.

Inside, many early features are obscured by 19th and 20th-century plaster. However, the main front room retains an original plain chartered cross, and the oak lintel of the fireplace is exposed, showing a soffit chamfer and worn stepped lozenge stops. To the left, part of the original framed partition is visible, including a late 17th-century to early 18th-century bead-moulded doorframe. In the kitchen, the cross-beam is boxed in, and the large rubble fireplace with a plain oak lintel has been largely rebuilt. The roof of the main block is inaccessible, but part of one principal rafter is exposed in the kitchen wing, where it is lap-jointed onto a post originally embedded in the cob wall. The 19th-century agricultural wing has a king post truss roof.