Lythe-Land Farmhouse

Lythe-land Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from around the early 17th century, extensively renovated in the 20th century. The structure is built with whitewashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings, with an asbestos slate roof (previously thatched), gabled at the ends. There is a projecting stone stack on the left end, an axial stack with a rendered shaft, and a 20th-century stack at the rear right. Originally, the house comprised three rooms and a through or cross passage, with the lower end to the right, and a hall stack backing onto the passage. The lower end, originally heated by a stack on the right end wall of the room, appears to have been a kitchen; the adjacent room appears to have been a fine parlour. A small service room adjoining the lower end room was likely added after the 17th century. Recent renovations include a new roof, replacement windows to the front elevation, and a two-story porch. Internally, a stair has been inserted into the former passage (replacing a stair against the front wall of the lower end room), the lower end stack has been moved to the rear wall, and the former unfloored service room has been provided with a floor. The building presents an asymmetrical three-by-one-by-two window front, with late 20th-century fenestration. The principal historic interest lies in the two left-hand ground floor rooms—the 17th-century parlour and hall. The hall is well-preserved, featuring richly-moulded crossbeams and scratch-moulded joists. The open fireplace has an ovolo-moulded lintel, ashlar jambs, a bread oven, and includes a 17th-century hall bench supported on a moulded timber post and brackets in front of a section of wall panelling with a strapwork frieze. A similar arrangement of bench and frieze is found against the partition wall of the hall in the inner room; parts of former seating and panelling from the inner room have been re-sited in the hall. The lower end room has a deeply-chamfered axial beam, which was formerly a cross-beam. Overall, this farmhouse incorporates two exceptionally fine 17th-century rooms, although the exterior has been significantly altered.