Down Farmhouse

Down Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from around the early 16th century, with substantial alterations in the late 16th and 17th centuries, and modernisation around 1982. The walls are plastered cob on rubble footings, with rubble stacks including 20th-century brick chimney shafts, and a thatched roof. The house originally had a three-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south, with an inner room at the left (west) end. A 17th-century kitchen block is set at a right angle to the rear of the service room and passage. Projecting stacks are visible at the end of the inner room, to the front of the hall, and on the outer side of the kitchen. The front has an irregular three-window arrangement; the ground floor has late 19th/early 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars, while the first floor has 20th-century casements without glazing bars. A 20th-century door is situated in the front of the passage, immediately right of the hall stack. Oak lintels are exposed above the doorways and ground floor windows. The rear and kitchen block have 20th-century casements. The roof is gabled.

Inside, a large, timber-framed crosswall is present on the lower side of the passage, separating it from a small, unheated service room. A 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen sits between the passage and hall; on the hall side only, the muntins are chamfered with cut diagonal stops. This was likely a low screen when the hall was open to the roof. A further oak plank-and-muntin screen divides the upper end of the hall, with muntins that are chamfered with roll stops above bench level, and a moulded strip along the top of the head beam. On the inner room side, only the muntins are chamfered with roll stops. It is unclear if this was a low screen or the lower portion of a crosswall. The hall fireplace was rebuilt in brick around 1982. The hall was floored in the mid-to-late 17th century with a plain, chamfered crossbeam. The inner room's fireplace is blocked. The main block was reroofed at approximately the same time as the rear block was constructed, revealing 17th-century A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The kitchen has a 17th-century chamfered crossbeam with scroll stops, and a large fireplace rebuilt in brick around 1982. A large bread oven, originally located to the right, has been converted into a cupboard.