Great Avercombe Farmhouse

Farmhouse at Great Avercombe, formerly known as West Avercombe Farmhouse. The building dates from the late 16th or early 17th century with a later 17th-century extension at the west end, and 18th-century refurbishment and possibly remodelling or extension at the east end. It is constructed of colourwashed rendered cob and stone rubble with a thatched roof, hipped at the ends. The heating arrangement includes back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack and two projecting lateral stacks on the rear (north) wall.

The house is planned as a long single-depth range five rooms wide on an east-west axis, with the north wall parallel to the road. From west to east, the rooms comprise a potato store, two small parlours heated by back-to-back fireplaces, a wide cross passage with a south-facing entrance facing a stair, a large parlour heated by a lateral stack, a short passage with a rear (north) entrance and wide stair, and a kitchen at the east end. The core of the house is late 16th or early 17th century, originally consisting of a hall to the right (east) and a lower service end to the left (west). The lower end may have been unheated originally, as the axial stack fireplaces appear to be 18th century at the earliest. A 17th-century oak plank and muntin partition forms an axial passage taken from the back (north) end of the small parlour west of the wide passage. The right (east) end appears to be an 18th-century remodelling, possibly an extension and refashioning of a late 16th or early 17th-century inner room, providing a second entrance from the rear (north) and the present kitchen. The house is rich in 18th-century joinery and includes an 18th-century axial passage on the first floor. The 18th-century work upgraded and modernised the old higher end and provided a new entrance and stair, whilst the old lower end was repurposed for servants' accommodation and storage, retaining the old entrance on the south side, now divided between a dairy and a porch.

Externally, the building is two storeys. The south (garden) elevation is asymmetrical with seven windows. There is an approximately central thatched porch with a 20th-century front door, flanked by 20th-century timber windows. To the right is a 20th-century conservatory adjoining the kitchen, to the left a 20th-century French window with small panes, and at the extreme left a plank door to the potato store. The north elevation, facing the road, has a lean-to outshut at the left with a corrugated asbestos roof and 20th-century aluminium door flanked by 20th-century windows, enclosing the left-hand axial stack. The right end of this elevation is blind except for a small four-pane window lighting the ground floor axial passage, a 12-pane 19th-century sash lighting the stair, and a blocked, probably 18th-century, two-light timber mullioned window to the first floor right. There is a GR letter box in the rear wall.

Interior features visible on the ground floor include hollow-chamfered axial beams to the potato store and the adjacent small parlour. The oak plank and muntin screen to the ground floor axial passage has chamfered stopped muntins on the passage side; the screen may not be in its original location. The large parlour, heated by the rear lateral stack, has a boxed-in crossbeam reported by the owner not to have a fine finish. Both fireplaces to the lateral stacks are partly blocked, and earlier jambs and lintels may survive. There are no exposed ceiling beams in the kitchen. The house preserves a fine series of 18th-century two-panel doors and 18th-century fitted cupboards with fielded panels. Eighteenth-century panelling survives below the stair window of the higher end stair.

The roof was not inspected end to end at the time of survey, but the side-pegged jointed cruck trusses over the centre of the house appear not to be smoke-stained, indicating the present structure has always had chimney stacks. The truss over the east end is 18th century in character, an A frame with an X apex, and principal rafters visible in the room over the potato store also appear to be straight, suggesting a late 17th-century or later date.

An impressively large traditional house, preserving its thatch, an interesting plan form, and unusually rich in 18th-century joinery.