Morrels Farmhouse

Morrels Farmhouse is a farmhouse with origins in the 16th century, significantly altered in the late 16th and 17th centuries, including a major renovation and rearrangement during the late 17th and early 18th century. It is constructed of stone rubble, with sections of plastered cob, stone rubble stacks topped with plastered brick, and a concrete tile roof, formerly thatched.

The house originally had a 4-room plan, built across a hillside facing south-east. The kitchen is at the south-west end, and the former hall or dining room is to the left of centre, with an axial stack serving back-to-back fireplaces. A 19th-century staircase was added to the upper end of the hall, opposite the fireplace, and a 19th-century doorway was inserted into the front. The parlour is to the right of centre, with a rear lateral stack, and a fourth unheated room is at the north-east end. The current layout largely reflects the late 17th and early 18th century renovations, although the original core dates back to the 16th century. The hall and parlour likely originated from an earlier 3-room-and-through-passage house, initially open to the roof with an open hearth fire. The parlour was floored over in the late 16th or early 17th century, likely with the insertion of a fireplace. A hall fireplace was added around the same time, followed by a floor above the hall in the early or mid 17th century. The late 17th and early 18th century renovations rebuilt the service end as a kitchen with a new stack backing onto the hall stack, and added the fourth room to the right end. The house is now two storeys.

The exterior has an irregular 5-window front, with 20th-century casement windows (some PVC). All three doors are 20th-century replacements set behind contemporary porches. The roof is gable-ended.

Inside, the hall/dining room features a large stone rubble fireplace (relined in the 20th century) with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. Two crossbeams remain; one is exposed and soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. A remaining section of a half beam across the chimneybreast is truncated and supported by a shaped oak bracket, likely from the late 17th or early 18th century, with a matching bracket added circa 1980. The partition between the hall and parlour contains remnants of an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The parlour has a 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling with broad hollow chamfers. The fireplace is blocked. One original truss remains, believed to be a jointed cruck, with the top exposed, blackened by the open hearth fire. The remainder of the roof structure is late 17th and early 18th century with plain carpentry. The kitchen fireplace is blocked, and late 17th and early 18th century A-frame trusses are visible at the right end of the roof, with the remainder replaced in the 20th century.