Knowle Farmhouse

Knowle Farmhouse is a large farmhouse, likely dating to the early 16th century, with significant alterations and extensions in the 16th and 17th centuries. A substantial refurbishment and rear addition occurred in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of plastered cob and rubble, with stone stacks topped with brick, and a slate and wheat reed thatched roof. Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage house facing north, it featured a service room at the west end. Hall and end stacks were present, with a later dairy extension in the 17th century incorporating the original axial stack. A late 19th-century extension, with a parallel slate roof, was added to the rear of the passage and service room. The main entrance is now at the rear. The house is two storeys throughout. The front facade, with four window bays, is irregular, though the three-window section projecting to the right (hall, passage, and service room) has a roughly symmetrical arrangement of late 19th-century casements with glazing bars and a thatched gable emphasizing the original entry position. A late 19th-century four-pane sash with horns is above a four-light casement to the left, with a dairy door further to the left. The roof is hipped to the right and gabled to the left, with shaped bargeboards. The interior largely reflects the late 19th-century refurbishment, but the layout suggests the survival of earlier features beneath the plaster. The roof structure indicates a complex early history, with jointed cruck trusses; one exhibits side-pegging. Early 16th-century trusses over the hall have dovetail lap collars and threaded purlins, while later 16th- and 17th-century trusses feature mortise-and-tenon collars with butt or trenched purlins. Large framed closed trusses span the upper passage screen and upper end of the hall, the latter over an internal jetty. The hall was floored in the early 17th century with a double ovolo moulded and step-stopped crossbeam. The front of the former passage is now occupied by a late 19th-century toilet containing a water closet with a mahogany bench seat, transfer-printed bowl, and brass flush handle, alongside a marble handbasin with shell motif decoration and a brass tap.