Gotham Farmhouse

Gotham Farmhouse

This is a farmhouse of probable early 16th-century origin, formerly a longhouse, which was remodelled and extended in the mid- to late 16th century and early 17th century, with further alterations made in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The walls are rendered cob, beneath a roof mostly covered with water reed thatch which is humped in the centre and half-hipped at its south end. The roof has end stacks and a rear lateral stack.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing west and built down a hillslope. It comprises a cross passage to the upslope end on the left, a former hall, and a shippon (now converted to a kitchen) to the lower end on the right. A two-storey parlour extension was added to the left (north), probably in the mid- to late 16th century, and a single-bay wing to the rear in the early 17th century. Several lean-to additions dating from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries have been added to the east and south sides.

The house is now two storeys throughout, a change from the early 17th century onwards. Its front (west) elevation forms an irregular five-window range, built on the slope so that the building steps down to the right. The windows are mostly 17th century, with two, three, four, and five lights featuring chamfered timber mullions and various timber or iron casements, most with glazing bars. Several first-floor windows break the eaves line. The central former hall has a five-light window, and the 16th-century parlour addition, set back on the left, also has a five-light window. There are two wide doorways, both low and fitted with planked doors, and open porches with thatched roofs supported by wooden uprights. The front passage doorway to the left of the hall window is probably 19th century with V-jointed boards. The entrance to the former shippon is set within a wide, square-headed opening that has been reduced in size and replaced with a later 19th-century door and a small three-light window.

The north gable end has an external stack. The rear (east) elevation includes a small timber two-light mullioned window to the first floor of the parlour addition, which is a late 20th-century copy of the original. The opening to the upper floor of the rear wing retains slots for an earlier four-light window, while the existing four-light window has early 17th-century saddle bars and leaded glazing in two of its lights, 18th-century leaded panes in the third, and a 20th-century iron light in the fourth. The ground floor has two timber casements. The south wall of the wing has a small single light, probably 17th century, on the first floor. The rear doorway to the shippon, visible within the lean-to, has a late-medieval chamfered frame with mitre joints and a 19th-century plank door. The south elevation has a modern single-storey lean-to at the left-hand end and a three-light timber window to the first floor.

Internally, the principal (left) entrance leads into the passage which has a late 20th-century oak winder stair at its far end, replacing a previously straight-flight staircase that opened from the former hall. To the left is the parlour, which has a fireplace with a timber lintel and sgraffito plasterwork, probably mid-17th century, in a geometric design on the jambs. The ceiling beam has stepped stops and the joists are exposed. The former hall lies to the right of the passage and has a 17th-century axial ceiling beam and a 17th-century door with mouldings forming geometric shapes, which leads to the rear wing. The fireplace has a chamfered lintel, volcanic ashlar jambs, and a fireback of volcanic ashlar, stone rubble, and cob. In its right wall is an oven. Set into the back of the fireplace is an ogee-arched opening with a volcanic stone surround, which forms a round-arched opening in the outer wall of the stack (now within the rear wing). It may have been associated with a former smoking chamber or brewing vat.

The former shippon, now taken into the house, has a sloping floor indicating its former agricultural use, an 18th- or 19th-century brick fireplace with a brick-lined oven fitted with a cast-iron door, and an axial ceiling beam with stepped stops. A straight-flight staircase leads from this room to the first floor.

Upstairs, there is a fireplace with a 19th-century surround in the room above the parlour, and several 17th-century door frames open from the landing. Some timber-framed partitions are visible to the lower end, one of which rises to a closed truss in the roof space. The early 17th-century roof structure features lapped and dovetailed collared principal rafters and two rows of purlins. Some timbers are late 20th-century reinforcements, and one truss has been replaced. In the lower (south) end, some smoke-blackened purlins, rafters, and lathes have been re-used or retained.