Penhill House

Penhill House is a house with origins in the 17th century, which was completely remodelled and extended in the early 19th century. It is constructed of stuccoed stone rubble with some cob and features a half-hipped slate roof with clay ridge tiles made by Fishleys of Fremington. The house has three brick stacks set off the ridge at the rear.

The symmetrical early 19th-century facade conceals a remodelled 17th-century farmhouse plan that originally consisted of three rooms and a through passage. The passage now serves as the entrance hall, with a staircase at the rear. The former lower end to the right and the hall to the left have been remodelled into two principal ground floor rooms. The lateral stack that once heated the hall is now enclosed by the building's rear wall, which incorporates service rooms. The inner room at the left end has been redesigned to resemble a single bay wing with an embattled parapet. To maintain symmetry, a similar flank wall was added at the right end, concealing a single-storey service room with a monopitch roof. A kitchen wing is located at the left end, set back slightly from and at right angles to the main range.

The house is two storeys high with garrets and features a symmetrical five-window range. The single end bays act as wings with embattled parapets; the left wing has a 12-paned sash window over a door with glazing bars, while the right wing has a blind window over similar doors. The central Tuscan porch includes an entablature and a six-panelled door with a plain fanlight above, flanked by two-storey canted bay windows added in the late 19th or early 20th century. These bay windows feature 16-paned sashes and 12-paned side sashes over French windows with 12-paned side sashes.

Inside, the 19th-century fittings and joinery are largely intact, including a geometrical staircase with a wreathed handrail, some two-panelled doors to service rooms with H-L hinges, and unusual six-panelled doors off the entrance hall, which have small quatrefoils at the corners of each panel and quatrefoils at the head of the jambs of the reeded architraves. The two principal ground floor rooms feature marble fireplace surrounds, and the dairy fittings remain intact.