Paynes Farmhouse

Paynes Farmhouse is a farmhouse of early or mid 16th-century origin, substantially rebuilt and extended in the 17th century, with modernisation dating to circa 1983. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble chimney stacks topped with plastered chimneyshafts of 19th and 20th-century brick. The roof is covered in red tile, replacing earlier thatch.

The house follows a 5-room lobby entrance plan, built across and originally terraced into the hillslope with an eastward-facing front. The plan comprises, from north to south: the former kitchen at the right (north) end, an unheated room (probably buttery, pantry or dairy), the hall, a second unheated room (possibly a cider store or dairy), and the parlour at the left (south) end. The kitchen contains a large gable-end stack with a curing chamber on its front side and a secondary front doorway. Between the kitchen and hall is the unheated room. The hall has an axial stack with a newel stair turret rising to the rear and projecting backward. The main front lobby entrance opens onto the front side of this stack. A disused corridor runs along the back of the upper unheated room, connecting the hall with the parlour, which has a gable-end stack and secondary front doorway. Later alterations have obscured the original plan, though the roof structure over the northern end survives with smoke-blackening that confirms the original house was an open hall house heated by an open hearth. The house is best regarded as largely 17th century in character. The hall-to-kitchen section results from an early to mid-17th-century rebuild as a lobby entrance plan house. The southern two rooms may be a late 17th-century extension, though this end has been much rebuilt in the 20th century while preserving the 17th-century layout. The building is two storeys with a 20th-century single-storey service outshot to the rear of the kitchen.

The exterior presents an irregular 5-window front of 19th and 20th-century replacement casements with glazing bars. At ground floor right end is a late 17th-century oak-mullioned window. The hall window (roughly central) retains a moulded oak head from an early or mid-17th-century window. Three front doorways contain plank doors; the central doorway is the original lobby entrance, fitted with a 19th-century gabled porch. The roof is gable-ended.

Internally, the kitchen contains a large stone rubble fireplace with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. A side oven to the left has been relined with 19th-century brick. To the right is an unusually well-preserved curing chamber. Its walk-in entrance is blocked but visible through an internal window; the interior is heavily blackened with a bench-like shelf running around. In the front wall is a small blocked 2-light oak window, heavily sooted. Both the kitchen and adjacent unheated room have deeply soffit-chamfered crossbeams with bar run-out stops. In the hall, the stone rubble fireplace has an ovolo-moulded oak lintel. The axial beam is soffit-chamfered, while the half-beam along the front wall is moulded with run-out stops. The upper end unheated room has a roughly-finished crossbeam resting on the rear corridor partition. Both the corridor partition and the partition to the parlour have been rebuilt in 20th-century concrete blocks. The doorway from corridor to hall is now blocked, though a late 17th-century to early 18th-century fielded 2-panel door survives on the corridor side. The parlour crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with run-out stops. Its fireplace is blocked, though part of its soffit-chamfered oak lintel remains visible, obscured by an 18th-century brick fireplace with curving pentice back and brick relieving arch. The roof over the hall, pantry/buttery and kitchen is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The inspectable portion over the hall is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire; the remainder was replaced in the 20th century. The house is noteworthy for its interesting 17th-century layout and the particularly fine example of a curing chamber.