Blacklands Farmhouse Including Adjoining Barn And Engine-House

This is a late 17th-century farmhouse with an attached barn and an engine-house, with some alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of rubble stone and cob, with the upper floor roughcast and a wheat straw-thatched roof featuring hipped ends. There are two large lateral stacks at the rear, one of rubble and one of brick. The barn has a hipped roof covered in corrugated iron-sheeting, and the engine-house has a segmental corrugated iron-sheeting roof.

The original farmhouse consisted of two rooms. A central lobby provides access to a straight staircase. The hall or kitchen is similar in size to the parlour to the right, both heated by lateral stacks at the back. A smaller room, likely a dairy, was added to the left of the hall/kitchen in the 18th century; a further room was added at the left end in the 20th century. Attached to the right-hand end is a large 18th-century threshing barn, forming an overall T-plan, with a horse-engine house located in the rear angle.

The two-storey farmhouse has a symmetrical two-bay facade, featuring 2-light 19th-century casements with small panes on the first floor, a matching casement on the ground floor, and late 19th-century casements on the ground floor. A weathered stone string course runs along the first floor level. The central door opening has a late 17th-century four-panelled door, although the porch is a non-conforming 20th-century addition. The interior features a blocked parlour fireplace and an unchamfered timber lintol with an oven in the hall/kitchen fireplace. The straight-flight staircase has late 17th-century turned balusters at the top, with the right-hand balustrade being a facsimile replacement. A late 17th-century moulded plaster ceiling with an oval and cornice is located over the landing at the top of the stairs. The roof space was not inspected, but the exposed straight principals in the first-floor rooms suggest the roof may be original. The barn has opposing threshing doors and a tie-beam roof; the roof of the horse-engine house is supported on simple wooden columns.