Duvale Farmhouse

Duvale Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the early 17th century, with a mid-19th century wing added later. It is constructed of stone rubble with a slate roof, with gables at the right end of the main range and the end of the wing, and a hipped roof to the left end of the main range. There are two rear lateral brick stacks to the main range (one from the 17th century, one 20th century), end stacks to the wing, and an axial stack to the wing.

The original plan consisted of a large three-room house with a through passage, with the hall to the right and the lower end under the same roof span as the west-facing wing. The inner room was later reduced in size. In the 19th century, a wing was added to the front of the lower end, effectively turning the house around so that the entrance is now on the west side of the wing. The original house then became largely service rooms. A single-storey lean-to and outbuilding adjoins the rear of the old lower end room, and another lean-to sits at the right end of the main range on the site of the former inner room.

The south elevation has an asymmetrical arrangement of three windows, with a gabled porch on the far left, which was originally the passage entrance. The central hall window is likely the original 17th-century embrasure, now containing a 4-light 19th-century window with 8 panes per light; the window on the right has 20th-century glazing. Two first-floor windows have 19th-century casements, 8 panes per light, a 4-light window to the left and a 3-light window to the right. The west side of the wing features a symmetrical arrangement with a panelled door, a rectangular fanlight, a porch on posts, and timber sash windows with glazing bars. A 20th-century casement is located on the first floor at the left end.

Inside, significant 17th-century features remain. The hall is unusually large with moulded crossbeams and a plank and muntin screen with a moulded head beam, chamfered stopped muntins, and a blocked ogival doorway. The hall fireplace has been partly rebuilt and reduced in size; it retains moulded Beerstone jambs and an ovolo-moulded stopped lintel. The fireplace in the lower end room has remnants of a cambered lintel and hearth seats. Upstairs, a partly concealed plank and muntin screen with a moulded head beam can be found at the right gable end. The roof has pegged 17th-century tie-beam trusses that are mortised at the apex, with later collars. Stone fragments of ecclesiastical origin are incorporated into the walling of the rear outbuilding, including a volcanic stone pinnacle and sections of stone decorated with blind quatrefoils.

Historical records indicate the site was a Domesday Manor held by Walson and appears as Denvall in a 1302 list of fees. The house is of evidently high quality.