Osmonds Farmhouse

Osmonds Farmhouse is a small farmhouse dating from the mid 17th century. It is situated on a gentle slope, facing southwest. The construction is primarily cob on stone rubble footings, with a cob stack topped with 20th-century brick. The roof is now covered with corrugated iron, replacing thatch, and incorporates a pump house. The plan is a four-room layout, with an additional unheated agricultural store at the northwest end, situated downhill from the main house. Larger rooms occupy the centre, with an axial stack serving back-to-back fireplaces: the room to the left of centre originally functioned as the kitchen, while the one to the right served as the hall or parlour. A more recent kitchen occupies the room at the right end. A central front lobby provides access, and a newel staircase is located within the thickness of the front wall in the hall, adjacent to the lobby. The house appears to be of single-phase construction and was floored from its inception. A small pump house projects forward to the left of the front doorway, with a contemporary dairy outshot located to its left.

The farmhouse is two storeys high. The front elevation features an irregular two-window arrangement, mostly with late 19th- to early 20th-century casement windows, including half-dormers on the first floor. The hall boasts a contemporary horned four-pane sash window, and the stairwell contains a small original oak two-light window. The front doorway is accessed via a contemporary gabled porch leading to a late 19th- to early 20th-century plank door. The main roof is half-hipped at each end, and the pump house is gable-ended.

The interior largely reflects late 19th- to early 20th-century modernisation, but this seems to have been relatively superficial. Stripping of plaster has revealed original carpentry in the hall/parlour, and the original fireplace has been opened up. The fireplace has an oak-framed front and a 19th-century oven. A crossbeam displays deep soffit chamfers with run-out stops. The upper end features an oak, close-studded crosswall. Only one side-pegged jointed cruck truss is exposed within the roof structure, but the presence of others is suspected, concealed within partitions. Osmonds Farmhouse is considered a well-preserved mid 17th-century small farmhouse.