Higher Furzeland Farmhouse Including Adjoining Cob Garden Wall To South West

Farmhouse. Probably dating back to the 16th century, with significant improvements and additions in the 17th century. The walls are primarily cob on rubble footings, with one stack of volcanic ashlar and one cob stack, both topped with 19th-century brick. Originally a three-room-and-through-passage house facing south-east, it features an inner room at the north-east end. A dairy and stair block were added to the rear of the hall and inner room in the mid-17th century, and the service end was extended by one room in the late 17th century. The rear end of the passage is now blocked by a 19th-century cupboard. A projecting lateral stack is located to the front of the hall, and a large projecting cob stack to the rear of the service room incorporates an 18th-century brick oven projection. The house has an irregular five-window front with late 19th and 20th-century casements of varying sizes. A 20th-century gabled porch with glass sides sits immediately to the left of the hall stack, which itself has a late 16th to early 17th-century volcanic ashlar chimney shaft with projecting coping and a small 19th-century brick top. The roofs are gabled on the main block and stair block, with the latter retaining parts of a mid-17th-century oak four-light window with chamfered mullions and one light of leaded glass.

The interior is noted for its quality. An early to mid-17th century oak plank-and-muntin screen separates the passage from the hall, featuring chamfered muntins with scroll stops. The hall fireplace is blocked, and two crossbeams are boxed in. A remarkable and unusual mid to late 17th-century panelled screen, in two heights, is located at the upper end of the hall. This screen includes applied moulding along the sides or corners of the upper panels and frieze panels, creating different geometric shapes, and incorporates an original two-panel door. A door in the rear wall of the hall leads to the stair. The mid-17th century straight-flight stair has an open string, square newel posts with ball caps, a high handrail, and one elaborately turned baluster to each step. Chamfered door frames with scroll stops are found from the foot of the stairs to the dairy and from the head of the stairs to the main block. A late 17th-century lapboard screen with shallow ogee-mouldings separates the passage from the service room, containing an original two-panel door and fittings including a locking draw-bar arrangement. Similar screens are present from the service room to the extension on each floor, the lower one inscribed ‘TG 1704’. The blocked kitchen fireplace is large, as indicated by the external stack. Cross beams are boxed in. The service room extension includes a late 17th-century winder stair. A blocked window in the front of the service room contains a late 17th-century window frame. The exposed roof over the service end, dating from the late 17th century, comprises oak A-frames with pegged lap-jointed collars.

A plastered cob wall on rubble footings, with a corrugated iron roof, extends southwest from the left (south-west) end of the front, returning southeast alongside the front garden and then southwest, where it includes two bee boles.