Great Westacott Farmhouse Including Attached Shippon With Loft Over

This is a late 15th or early 16th century farmhouse that was remodelled in the 17th century when a shippon (a byre or animal shelter) with a loft above was added. 19th century alterations were also made. The farmhouse is constructed of whitewashed rendered stone rubble and cob, with a slate roof. The shippon has a tiled roof. It originally had a through-passage plan, formerly an open hall house, with the lower end divided into two rooms, one of which is heated. A dairy is at the front, extending into the shippon, and there’s a right-angled projection to the right of the main range, creating an overall L-shaped plan. A tall rubble stack is at the right end of the farmhouse, featuring a drip, offsets and a projecting bread oven. A stack is also set slightly off the ridge at the left end, with a drip and slated weatherings and a tapered cap. The farmhouse has two storeys and a single-storied extension to the rear, with a 3-window range of 19th and 20th century windows. There are two 2-light casements to the left and a 3-light casement to the right, all with three panes per light. A 4-light casement window is to the hall to the right of a 6-panelled door, with the upper two panels glazed. A small square window illuminates the dairy to the left. The shippon has doors on both storeys in the same opening, a 2-light window with iron stanchions, and a square window opening to the dairy inserted into a former blocked doorway. Inside, a 17th century rear through-passage doorway has an old plank door. The heated lower end room features stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, and 18th century joinery to an integral wall cupboard. A 17th century doorway leads to the dairy, with scroll-stopped chamfered durns. The stairs have been repositioned at the lower end of the hall, which was formerly in a stair turret projection to the rear. The hall beam also has run-out stops and a cyma recta moulding to the exposed arris of the jetty at the lower end of the hall. Above the jetty is a closed raised cruck truss, with the collar tenoned into mortices to the soffits of the blades and carrying two tiers of threaded purlins and a diagonally set ridge purlin. Smoke-blackening on both sides of the truss, but not on the lower side of the lath and plaster partition, suggests the lower end was formerly open to the roof, although the remainder of the roof structure in this area was replaced in the 20th century. This end was originally floored over, projecting into the hall, which remained open to the roof, possibly into the 18th century. The shippon contains two stop-chamfered beams and has two 17th century roof trusses with straight principals carrying two tiers of threaded purlins and a ridge purlin with mortices for removed collars.