Mill Farm And Adjoining Barn

Mill Farm and adjoining barn is a house, formerly farmhouse, with origins in the early 16th century, remodelled in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with a 20th-century rear left addition.

The building is constructed of colourwashed plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with a thatched roof gabled at the right end and half-hipped at the left end. It has a front lateral projecting stack with a tall brick shaft and a rendered projecting right end stack. The 20th-century addition is of concrete block.

The house originally featured a late medieval open hall arrangement, though without access to the roof apex it remains unclear whether the whole building or only part of it was open to the roof timbers. An internal jetty at the lower (left) end may be part of the original plan but more likely represents a secondary feature, indicating that the lower end and passage were floored first and the middle room floored subsequently when the front lateral stack was added. The right-hand inner room's original storeyed status is uncertain. This inner room is heated from the right end stack, which is likely an 18th or even 19th-century addition. The 17th-century three-room and through-passage plan remains largely intact. The hall/kitchen has a rear stair turret leading to the first floor above the lower end, which is unusually narrow and unheated, presumably functioning as a low-status service room. A staircase with 18th-century balusters rises from the inner room, and the first-floor room to the right opens directly into the room above the 17th-century hall/kitchen. A 20th-century gable-ended block has been added to the rear of the lower end and passage with a roofline parallel to the main range.

The front elevation is asymmetrical with two windows. A 20th-century gabled porch and front door open into the through passage, positioned left of centre. The front lateral stack features a rounded projecting bread oven with a pyramidal slate roof. To the right is a half-glazed 20th-century door leading into the inner room. Various 19th or early 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars are distributed across the front. At ground floor left, lighting the lower end, is a three-light window with iron stanchions. The rear elevation has two 20th-century first-floor casements and earlier three-light ground-floor casements. The thatch is carried down as a catslide over the rectangular stair turret. Pigeon holes are present on the left gable end.

Internally, numerous features of interest survive. Side pegged jointed cruck roof construction (apex not seen) supports framed partitions either side of the room above the 17th-century hall/kitchen. On the ground floor, plank and muntin screens survive between the passage and hall/kitchen, and between the hall/kitchen and inner room. The higher end passage screen retains the remains of a late 16th-century shouldered doorway, partly cut away at a later date. The hall/kitchen features a chamfered step-stopped cross beam and a partly blocked early 17th-century fireplace with a cambered chamfered lintel and stone rubble jambs. A plastered-over jetty beam marks the lower end of the hall. An early 17th-century doorframe and door serve the newel stair in the hall stair turret. The lower end room has closely-spaced rough joists.

An adjoining lofted cob and stone barn stands at right angles to the main range, attached to the 20th-century addition, and has a corrugated iron roof. It is of particular interest for a row of eight bee boles on its south side.