Dusnley Farmhouse

Dunsley Farmhouse

A farmhouse of complex development spanning the early 16th century to the 20th century, built of roughcast rendered stone rubble and cob with an asbestos slate roof and gable ends. The building probably dates to the early 16th century, was remodelled in the late 16th century, and underwent substantial rebuilding and extension of the lower end around 1700, with further 20th-century alterations.

The house follows a traditional plan with a hall heated by an axial stack backing onto a cross-passage, an inner room to the right, and a lower end to the left of the cross-passage. The upper end of the hall was originally partitioned with a solid wall, and both the hall and lower end were originally open to the roof. A cruck truss is visible over the inner end, and its clean, unsmoked condition suggests this room was floored from the outset, though it remains unclear whether it was originally an addition. The hall appears to have been floored and the axial stack inserted during the late 16th century. The lower end, largely rebuilt and extended around 1700, contains two rooms: a smaller dining room nearest the cross-passage, and a parlour at the left end. The dining room is divided axially towards the rear with a stack on the rear partition wall flanked by an unusually configured staircase that breaks into two flights. A former stair on the left led down to a cellar kitchen, with the stack extending down to heat a fireplace incorporating a bread oven. A dairy outshut extends to the rear left end, and a 20th-century single-storey extension projects to the front of the inner room.

The exterior presents a two-storey elevation of five windows with 20th-century fenestration. A shallow bracketed canopy shelters the cross-passage doorway, supported on plain pilasters. A cellar lies below the lower end.

The interior reveals considerable richness. The inner room has a single axial chamfered ceiling beam. The hall features closely spaced deep chamfered beamed ceilings with principal axial beams and half cross beams positioned to the front of the axial stack. The original hall fireplace lintel survives, as does an old oak inglenook bench with shaped legs, now concealed behind a 19th-century chimneypiece. A headrail and short section of plank and muntin screen survive to the lower side of the cross-passage, with some sections reused across the rear of the passage when the lower-end stairs were inserted. The small room to the left of the passage retains a moulded plaster cornice and 18th-century dado panelling.

The parlour at the left end displays exceptional plasterwork: panelling covers all walls except the front, arranged as single large panels above smaller dado panels beneath a decorative enriched plaster cornice. The end wall chimneypiece flanks its narrow vertical panels with a narrow plasterwork overmantel panel featuring an egg and dart surround containing three small plasterwork roundels depicting mythical scenes. Semi-circular arched alcoves with reeded pilasters and raised and fielded two-panelled doors flank the fireplace, concealing lower cupboards. The fireplace grate, reportedly in Adam style, was removed in the 20th century; only the outline of a large oval plasterwork ceiling can be traced. Numerous 18th-century raised and fielded three- and four-panelled doors survive throughout the house; the chamber over the hall retains a partially cased 17th-century chamfered door surround. The cellar contains a fireplace to the rear wall with a brick-lined bread oven and a low niche to a well in the front right-hand corner.

Three original roof trusses survive. The truss over the left end is a jointed cruck; those over the hall and inner room are plastered over but accessible above collar height only. The collars appear to be cambered and morticed and tenoned. The ridge is diagonally set, and the purlins appear to be trenched. The solid wall partition at the upper end of the hall rises to the apex and is smoke-blackened on the hall side only. The cruck truss over the inner room is clean, as are all remaining roof timbers, supporting the evidence that this end was floored from the outset. The hall and lower-end truss and surviving rafters are smoke-blackened, becoming progressively lighter towards the lower end. Beyond the lower-end truss are two further trusses with straight principals, probably dating from the 18th-century extension.

Dunsley Farmhouse exemplifies a sophisticated multiphase farmhouse development, with the richness of its interior detailing providing a striking contrast to the plainness of its exterior.