Hatherland Mill

Hatherland Mill is a former farmhouse with probable early 16th-century origins and late 16th-century remodelling, with some minor 20th-century alterations. It is whitewashed rendered stone except for the front wall to the left of the porch, which appears to be a cob rebuild. The roof is thatched with a plain ridge, gabled at the left end and hipped at the right end. The building features a projecting left end stone stack with a tall castellated stone shaft and semi-circular bread oven; a front lateral stone stack with set-offs and a tall stone shaft with moulded cornice and castellations; and probably a 20th-century brick stack at the right end.

The house follows a 3-room and through passage plan, with the rear door of the passage blocked and a lower end to the left. The origins of the house are probably a late medieval open hall, evidenced by re-used sooted roof timbers. The two right-hand rooms were floored in the late 16th century when the lateral stack was added. The inner room to the right appears to have been unheated until the 20th century. The evolution of the lower end is less clear; the front wall has been completely rebuilt but interior details are consistent with a late 16th or early 17th-century date and the room has clearly functioned as a kitchen at one time. A small rear left outshut with a catslide roof adjoins the lower end room, and an adjoining slate-roofed outshut to the rear of the hall; these outshuts are no longer accessible from the interior. Stairs against the rear wall of the lower end and hall are probably 18th century or later insertions, and the position of the earlier stair is unclear. 20th-century alterations include a rear axial passage to the inner room and repartitioning of the first floor.

Exterior: The building is 2 storeys with an asymmetrical 4-window front and a gabled rustic thatched porch to the passage to the left of centre. The hall and inner room windows to the right have a continuous volcanic stone hoodmould with label stops. Fenestration comprises small-pane 18th, 19th or 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars; there are no rear windows.

Interior: The hall retains very complete carpentry and joinery of high quality, with some features probably concealed behind later plaster. The hall has a moulded intersecting beamed ceiling and a plank and muntin oak screen to the passage with chamfered muntins. A fine plank and muntin oak screen to the higher end is concealed on the inner room side with moulded muntins and a cranked moulded doorframe. The fireplace has been reduced in size with a probably Edwardian carved chimneypiece; the earlier timber lintel is visible behind the wall plaster. A curious feature is an internal hall bay adjacent to the stack with a keeping place in the side of the chimney breast. A similar arrangement exists in the inner room, which has a deep cupboard in the front right corner with a rehung 17th-century door and thick side wall, creating an internal bay between the wall and the partition with the hall. The inner room has a chamfered stopped cross beam. The lower end room has chamfered scroll-stopped cross beams, with the stops more than a foot away from the front wall, which has been rebuilt, the beams being given additional support. 20th-century blocking to the lower end fireplace obscures earlier jambs and lintel which are likely to survive behind. The first floor has been repartitioned but a fragment of 17th-century moulded plaster cornice above the lower end room indicates a former high status 17th-century chamber on the first floor, and a blocked recess suggests a former first floor fireplace at the left end.

Roof: Timbers of various dates are present. Soot-encrusted re-used battens and rafters suggest the open hall origins of the house but are used in conjunction with probably 18th-century X apex main trusses over the inner room and hall. One 17th-century truss survives at a lower height below late timbers approximately above the passage. There is a change in roof construction and height of first floor ceiling above the lower end, where the remnants of an axial partition close to the front wall project into the roof space as a row of studs, possibly associated with the evident reconstruction of the front wall of the lower end.