Houndsmoor Farmhouse

Houndsmoor Farmhouse is a mid-17th century farmhouse, which was refurbished in the late 19th century. It is constructed of plastered stone rubble, with a stone rubble stack extended with 19th century brick, and a coated slate roof, originally thatched. The farmhouse follows a 5-room plan lobby entrance house, built down a steep hillslope. At the uphill (east) end is a small, unheated room with no connecting doorway to the main house. This is followed by the parlour, and the original kitchen. A large axial stack between the parlour and kitchen serves back-to-back fireplaces. The lobby entrance is centrally located, and the staircase rises from the parlour behind the stack. Downhill at the west end are two unheated rooms, the end one likely a dairy. The inner room here is no wider than a passage, and there is no evidence of doorways at either end. The house appears to be a single phase construction, although the roof was rebuilt in the 19th century at a higher level than its original height. The farmhouse is two storeys high. The front elevation, with an irregular four-window arrangement, retains three windows that are likely original; they are oak-framed with slender chamfered mullions and rectangular panes of leaded glass. The remaining windows have been replaced with 20th century casements without glazing bars. A roughly central lobby entrance now contains a 20th century plank door, set within a contemporary gabled porch. The room at the right end has a front doorway with another 20th century plank door. The roof is gable-ended and steps down in level in the centre. The tall, divided chimneyshaft, which would have been a dominant feature before the roof was raised, remains quite impressive. Inside, the dairy has axial beams, while the kitchen and parlour have crossbeams, all soffit-chamfered with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. Plastered partitions separate the two service rooms at the left end, and the service room from the kitchen, the former apparently including a cranked doorhead and the latter showing the headbeam of what appears to have been an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The kitchen has a large stone rubble fireplace with a soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel. The roof was not inspected, but the bases of apparently 19th century A-frame trusses are visible on the first floor. This interesting single phase 17th century farmhouse is situated high in the hills and may represent a 17th century enclosure.