Coombe Farmhouse

Coombe Farmhouse is a house with origins in the early 16th century, remodelled in two phases during the early 17th century. It was probably extended at the right end in the 18th century, and accommodation was extended into an adjoining probable 18th-century stable at the left end.

The building is constructed of colourwashed plastered cob and stone rubble. The roof is thatched to the front, with part of the rear thatch replaced with pantiles and a hip at the right end. The former stable at the left end is roofed with corrugated iron and gabled at the left end. An axial stack has a brick shaft, probably from the 19th century, and a probable rear right lateral brick stack also dates from this period.

The present plan is single depth, five rooms wide, with the left-hand room being a converted stable and the right-hand room probably an 18th-century addition. The late medieval arrangement was an open hall house with its lower end to the right, extending from the right-hand wall of the present stable to beyond the axial stack. This covered the two left-hand of the three middle rooms and probably the right-hand room. The exact extent of the medieval building to the right of the stack is uncertain due to limited roof-space access. The medieval plan is particularly interesting in including two rooms with open hearths, evidenced by closed trusses sooted on both sides, located in the left-hand and middle rooms.

The early 17th-century remodelling of the open hall house appears to have involved adding a stack, presumably backing onto a cross or through passage no longer in existence, prior to inserting the ceiling. This would have created a period when the hall was open to the roof timbers but contained a stack. The putative cross or through passage has since disappeared, resulting in a plan of three centre rooms with an unheated inner room to the left, an early 17th-century hall or kitchen in the middle heated from the axial stack, and a lower end room adjoining the hall or kitchen. The room at the extreme right is probably a later addition and has been subdivided for service rooms.

The building is two storeys. The front elevation is asymmetrical with five windows of irregular fenestration, and includes the former stable at the left end. A fixed window with 20th-century glazing to the right of centre is probably the original front entrance to the old passage. A large rounded bread oven is located to the left of the fixed window. A 20th-century corrugated iron porch is positioned on the front at the right. Small windows with timber casements, mostly retaining glazing bars, are distributed across the elevation.

The interior retains two side-pegged smoke-blackened jointed cruck trusses with a diagonally-set ridge. Considerable survival of smoke-blackened rafters, battens and heavily-sooted thatch is evident. The truss between the inner room and hall is closed and sooted on both sides. On the ground floor, the early 17th-century hall features an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs and a chamfered lintel carried on a timber corbel at the left end. The corbel is rounded and continues the lintel chamfer. A chamfered scroll-stopped axial beam rests, rather awkwardly, on top of the lintel but oversails it on the left side, where it is supported by a moulded bracket fixed to the left end of the lintel and corbel. This unusual arrangement indicates that the insertion of the beam is secondary to the fireplace.

A steep step leads up to the inner room to the left through a rounded shouldered doorway with a plank door with strap hinges. The hall ceiling plaster cuts off the head of the doorframe, suggesting that the doorframe may pre-date the ceiling. A straight stair rises from the hall against the rear wall. A chamfered doorframe connects the hall and lower end room. The lower end room has a deeply chamfered crossbeam and a chamfered axial beam.

This is an interesting vernacular house with good survival of 16th- and 17th-century features.