Gillhouse Farmhouse Including Cob Walls And Outbuildings Adjoining To North West

Gillhouse Farmhouse, Zeal Monachorum

A farmhouse with plastered cob walls on rubble footings and a thatch roof, dating from the late 16th or early 17th century with possible earlier origins, substantially rebuilt and enlarged in the late 17th century.

The house derives from a three-room-and-through-passage plan facing south-east, with the former inner room positioned at the north-eastern end. During the late 17th century, the building was remodelled in one or two stages. A fourth room was added to the former service end at the south-western side. The former inner room was probably extended, and both the hall and inner room were brought forward by an extra bay. A two-storey porch was constructed on the front, built large enough to accommodate a stair (now dismantled). A corridor along the back of the hall dates to the same period. The present stairs are 19th century and situated in this corridor.

The building is two storeys throughout. Stone rubble stacks are topped with 20th-century brick. The front elevation displays a nearly symmetrical 2:1:2 arrangement of late 19th to early 20th-century three-light casements with glazing bars. The large gabled porch contains a plain nearly round-headed outer arch, with a late 19th-century front door behind—panelled and part-glazed. The main roof is gable-ended. The projecting left end stack is of neatly-squared stone blocks with ashlar weathered offsets.

The rear wall includes numerous late 17th-century oak window frames with flat-faced mullions and relatively broad internal ogee mouldings. Two three-light windows serve the former service room and its extension (the latter blocked), two more light the chambers above (one containing rectangular panes of leaded glass), and another two-light window sits to the left of these.

Interior features include cob internal crosswalls. The former inner room, now the kitchen, retains late 17th-century features, including a crossbeam with soffit-chamfered finish and run-out stops; the large fireplace is blocked. The hall core dates to the late 16th or early 17th century and contains a fireplace built of stone rubble with a soffit-chamfered and pyramid-stopped oak lintel. The rear of the two axial beams is contemporary with similar finishing against the chimney breast. At the opposite end, another section of oak has been scarfed on, and a massive iron bolt protrudes upward in the first floor corridor above. The beam towards the front has a plain soffit chamfer, dating from the late 17th-century widening of the hall. The passage and two lower rooms contain no exposed carpentry.

The roof is wholly 17th century, though some earlier smoke-blackened timbers have been reused. The earliest truss, over the lower side of the passage, is an A-frame with a pegged dovetail lap-jointed collar, dating from the late 16th or early 17th century. All other trusses are late 17th-century A-frames with simple pegged lap-jointed collars. The trusses over the hall feature unusual collars which on the rear side are shaped to follow the principal down nearly 0.5 metres and are fixed by a series of pegs.

At the rear, a high cob wall on rubble footings with thatch coping encloses a courtyard. Later stonework on each side has been built with lean-to roofs.

An adjoining outbuilding stands to the north-west.