Venn Haven

This is a farmhouse dating back to the early 16th century, with significant remodelling likely occurring in the late 16th century. Further extensions were added in the 19th century, and later alterations were made in the 20th century. The construction consists of painted roughcast rendered stone rubble and cob, topped with a corrugated asbestos roof featuring gable ends. The building has a T-shaped layout. The original front range was a hall-house, with what was formerly an open hall now divided into a hall to the left of a through-passage and a kitchen to the right, at the upper end. A two-storey wing of a single-room plan was added to the rear, likely in the 19th century. A single smoke-blackened cruck truss remains over the hall. The hall was ceiled and the front lateral stack inserted probably in the late 16th century. A solid stone and cob partition in the upper right side of the passage indicates the kitchen was added in the 17th century. An outbuilding was removed around 1985, suggesting that the present wide passage was originally an inner room, ceiled from the outset; the original passage was likely at the lower left end of the hall, now partitioned to create a small store-room. The front elevation has two storeys and a four-window range, featuring early 20th-century two-light casements with four panes per light, as well as a 20th-century lean-to porch. Inside the hall, there are two cross ceiling beams with deep chamfers and hollow step stops. The narrow end room has a cross ceiling beam, chamfered and stopped on the hall side only. The passage features plank and muntin dado panelling on the left side, with chamfered muntins and the date 1741 carved on the top rail. A semi-circular arched, late 16th-century, chamfered door surround exists at the rear of the passage, possibly re-set. The kitchen has exposed joists but no ceiling beams. Original fireplaces are concealed behind 20th-century grates. The roof was largely replaced in the 20th century but a single raised cruck truss survives over the hall; this truss is closed with a clay daub partition that is smoke-blackened on the hall side. The ridge piece and some original rafters over the passage remain, but are un-smudged.