Horselake

Horselake is a farmhouse, now a house, with possible origins in the 16th century. It was largely rebuilt in the early 17th century and modernised and extended in the mid-20th century. The construction is primarily plastered cob on rubble footings, with stone and brick stacks and a thatched roof. The building originally comprised two rooms with a central through passage. The service room, to the left, has a gable-end stack, while the hall to the right has a front lateral stack and a projecting rear stair turret. A more recent gable stack serves a 20th-century extension. The south-east facing front has two storeys and a balanced three-window arrangement of 20th-century iron-framed casements. A central door is sheltered by a 20th-century hipped thatched roof porch, and the hall stack projects prominently to the right. Two bee bole alcoves are set into the first floor at the left end.

The interior largely reflects the 17th-century rebuilding, although some features from the 16th century were reused: for example, a central side-pegged jointed cruck roof truss. A full-height cob crosswall defines the lower (left) side of the passage and service room. This includes a large kitchen fireplace with a side oven to the right and a stairwell to the left, and a cupboard with a scratch-moulded oak door on the front wall. The hall side of the passage features a reset 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen. The hall has a chamfered crossbeam with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, a granite fireplace with an ovolo-moulded oak lintel, and a presumably 18th or 19th-century cream-oven in the end wall. A doorway to the stairs in the rear wall contains a fine oak frame with a double-ovolo surround, cleaved roll stops, and a contemporary nine-panel oak door. The stair turret contains small closets on each floor, screened from the newel staircase by oak plank-and-muntin partitions. A double doorway at the stairhead has ovolo-moulded surrounds and one original plank door with strap hinges. The first floor was originally ceiled below 17th-century tie beam trusses, although the service chamber is now open and a tie has been cut away. Overall, this is an interesting 17th-century farmhouse.