Lower Filleigh Farmhouse

Lower Filleigh Farmhouse is probably an early 16th-century farmhouse, significantly altered in the late 16th and 17th centuries, with an 19th-century kitchen block added. The structure is plastered cob on rubble footings, with rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a slate roof (formerly thatched). It was originally a three-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-east, with a service room at the north-eastern end. A small, unheated dairy is located at the end of the inner room, and a 19th-century kitchen with a granary above is set at a right angle to the rear of the inner room/dairy. Large projecting lateral stack is on the front of the hall, a projecting end stack to the service room, and a massive end stack to the kitchen. The house has two storeys. The front has a four-window arrangement to the first floor and two windows to the ground floor, which are arranged irregularly. The ground floor windows are 19th-century 16-pane sashes with horns. Two first-floor windows on the right of the hall stack are late 19th-century horned 12-pane sashes, while two first-floor windows on the left of the stack are a closely-set pair of 20th-century iron-framed casements with glazing bars. 20th-century doors lead to the passage and dairy. The hall stack has an original plastered rubble chimney shaft, raised with 19th-century brick. The roof is gable-ended on the right and hipped on the left. The rear kitchen block has an external flight of stone steps leading to the granary.

Inside, a full-height cob crosswall is on the lower (right) side of the passage to the service room, which has a probably 19th-century unfinished crossbeam. The fireplace in the service room is blocked. The hall fireplace is also blocked and displays a variety of beams, including a hollow-chamfered half beam against the passage screen, a late 16th to early 17th century main crossbeam, which is chamfered with truncated pyramid stops, and a late 17th-century chamfered and straight-cut stopped beam against the upper end partition. The hall roof is supported by a side-pegged jointed cruck truss with a cambered collar, butt purlins and a through ridge. Soot marks on the roof structure and the cob crosswall indicate that the 16th-century hall was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. A late 17th-century A-frame truss with pegged lap-jointed collar is over the inner room. Other 16th and 17th-century features are likely hidden by later plasterwork in the main block. The rear kitchen block is apparently 19th century and has a king post truss roof. The fireplace is blocked.