Owlaborough Farmhouse

Owlaborough Farmhouse is a farmhouse of considerable architectural interest, probably built in the early 16th century and substantially remodelled in the late 16th century. A further inner room was added or rebuilt in the 17th century, and the lower end was considerably modified during the 19th and 20th centuries. A late 19th-century extension was added at the right end.

The main range has an unrendered stone rubble facade with cob to the rear. The roofing is mixed: asbestos slate covers the main range, whilst the late 19th-century extension to the right end has a slate roof with gable end, and the lower end to the left has a corrugated iron roof hipped at that end. There are three brick stacks: a rendered stack to the right end, an axial (formerly gable-end) brick stack heating the inner room, and an axial brick stack heating the hall towards the left end of the main range.

The building follows an unusual modified long-house plan. The principal rooms are a hall and inner room, beyond which lies a late 19th-century two-storey kitchen extension of single-room plan. To the left, a long lofted lower end with lower roof level originally housed stock until the 1970s and now serves as storage.

The structure reveals its development through several key features. Smoke-blackened roof timbers over the hall indicate it was originally open to the roof, the blackening fading over the lower end. The proximity of the hall truss to the partition wall between hall and lower end shows the latter has been substantially remodelled. The original extent and function of the lower end—whether it was floored from the outset and served as a shippon or service area—remain unclear.

The hall was ceiled and the stack inserted in the late 16th century. A distinctive feature is the positioning of the stack well forward of the partition wall at the lower end, creating space for a small winder staircase at the rear of the hall fireplace. A chamfered 16th-century door surround in the partition wall suggests the passage originally lay to the left of that wall. The absence of a corresponding partition on the lower-end side indicates the lower end was probably remodelled in the 17th century, with a main entrance made directly into the hall.

The inner room at the upper end appears to be a later addition, probably of the late 17th century, as suggested by its ceiling beams, fireplace, and roof structure. However, an exposed central timber upright in the solid cob wall, apparently intended to support the ridge-piece, could suggest a timber-framed closed partition originally existed and that the inner room was entirely remodelled rather than added.

The two-storey kitchen extension was added in the late 19th century. At the same time, the upper end of the hall was divided to create a cross-passage providing access to a principal staircase—entirely replaced in the 20th century—in a lofted outshut to the rear of the hall and inner room. This outshut incorporated a dairy, salting-house, and apple loft.

Externally, the building is two storeys tall and displays an eight-window range. The main range retains entirely intact 19th-century fenestration: three-light casements to the ground floor and two-light casements to the upper storey, with 6 and 8 panes per light respectively, except to the upper storey at the left end which has a 20th-century casement. All window lintels have been renewed in the 20th century. The lower end has entirely 20th-century fenestration and three doorways, the central doorway being wider than those to each side. Two additional 20th-century doors are also present.

The interior contains several notable features. The inner room has a chamfered axial ceiling beam with square-cut joists and a chamfered fireplace lintel. The hall has a single axial chamfered ceiling beam; the joists, exposed only in the 19th-century passage, are also chamfered with pyramid stops. The hall fireplace has good dressed stone jambs and a small arched opening at the base of the hearth in the rear wall, possibly a raking hole for ashes. A large brick-lined bread oven is present. A small steep winder staircase rises at the rear of the fireplace. A 16th-century semi-circular headed chamfered doorway, now blocked, exists at the lower end of the hall. The lower end, divided into stables and shippon, retains principally intact stable fittings. Early 19th-century raised and fielded four-panelled doors survive largely intact throughout the main range.

The roof structure is of particular interest. Two trusses span the hall. The central truss is certainly a side-pegged raised jointed cruck with thin, slightly cambered morticed and tenoned collar carrying two tiers of trenched purlins and a diagonally set ridge purlin. The feet of the other truss close to the lower end of the hall are boxed in. Both trusses have the collar removed from the second; both carry two tiers of trenched purlins and a diagonally set ridge purlin. The rafter couples are not halved at the apex but side-pegged together with large wooden pegs. All roof members, including battens, are smoke-blackened, decreasingly so below the inserted stack. The medieval roof structure over the hall is surprisingly well preserved beneath the superimposed 20th-century one. The heavy inner room purlins are supported entirely on the partition walls and are clean. The roof structure over the kitchen extension is 19th-century; the lower end was entirely reroofed in the late 20th century.

Despite its superficially altered exterior, Owlaborough retains an unusual plan form, a medieval roof structure, and some good quality internal fittings, making it a building of considerable interest.