Bratton Farmhouse

Bratton Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the medieval period, with substantial alterations occurring probably in the 17th and 19th centuries. A rear kitchen wing was added in 1903, and the interior was altered again in the late 20th century. It is constructed of painted rendered stone rubble and cob, with a slate roof featuring gable ends. The house has three stone rubble stacks – a tall lateral stack to the left of the passage, a stone rubble stack heightened in brick at the right gable end, and a brick stack to the gable end of the rear kitchen wing. Originally an open-hall house, the plan was remodelled in the 17th and 19th centuries and further obscured by 20th-century alterations. It likely had a 3-room and through-passage plan, although two rooms to the right of the passage are now combined. The room to the left of the passage was previously used as a kitchen with a dairy, retaining slate slabs. Reused, smoke-blackened purlins are positioned over this end of the house, suggesting the house may have been “turned round,” with the original hall positioned to the left of the passage. The passage was widened in the 20th century, with a staircase added, and a further 19th-century staircase incorporated into an outshut in the rear kitchen wing's left-hand angle. The building is two storeys high, with a four-window front featuring 12-paned hornless sash windows. The interior has been significantly altered in the 20th century, although some good quality 19th-century joinery remains on the ground floor. The eaves were heightened in the 19th century, utilising rough-pegged trusses with lapped collars and reusing smoke-blackened purlins on the new left side. These upper tier purlins are chamfered on the underside with run-out stops.