East Lee Cottage East Lee Farmhouse

East Lee Farmhouse and East Lee Cottage

A farmhouse, now divided into two dwellings, dating from around 1500 with alterations made in the early 17th century and probably again in the 18th century, together with some late 20th-century changes. The building is constructed of coursed stone rubble and cob, mostly rendered, with a gable-ended corrugated-asbestos roof (formerly thatched) and hipped to the right. Stone lateral and end stacks feature weatherings; the front stack was partly rebuilt in 19th-century red brick and the left stack is rendered.

The house follows a three-room and cross-passage plan facing south, with ground that falls away to the left. It originated as a late-Medieval open hall house consisting of a hall with a former inner room to the right and a former cross passage to the left leading to a room beyond. This space was originally open to the roof from end to end, probably divided only by low partitions. The 17th-century alterations included insertion of the first floor and probable rebuilding of the dividing walls. External lateral and end stacks were inserted: one to the front wall, and others to serve the inner room and service room.

A cob wall between the hall and inner room rises to eaves level. This dividing wall possibly dates from the late-Medieval period, evidenced by a smoke-blackened post attached to it on the hall side, though the wall itself does not appear blackened in the roofspace. The dividing wall may have been inserted or raised during a transitional phase of flooring, with the upper and lower ends floored first while the hall remained open to the roof, heated either by a former open hearth or by the inserted stack on the front wall. A post in the roof running from the top of the dividing wall to the apex shows smoke blackening on both sides and may predate the wall, possibly rising from a former wooden screen, or may be contemporary with it, perhaps replacing an earlier roof truss.

A rectangular stair projection was added at the rear of the upper end of the hall in the 17th century when the first floor was inserted; this projection was probably also raised in the 17th century, as evidenced by projections visible at the eaves on front and rear elevations. A continuous lean-to outshut at the rear is probably a 17th or 18th-century addition. A probable 18th-century single-roomed addition to the right has a ground-floor room now used as a workshop, entered from the end wall. The house was divided in the late 19th or 20th century, and the lower end, cross passage and former service room have been substantially altered in the late 20th century with inserted dividing walls. A 20th-century staircase at the rear of the former cross passage probably replaced an inserted 19th-century stair. The cross-passage door is now blocked (now a window), probably dating from the 19th or 20th century. A door was inserted in the front hall of the inner room in the 20th century.

The building is two storeys high. The front elevation is asymmetrically fenestrated, with four first-floor windows—three 19th-century three-light small-paned wooden casements to the left and 20th-century two-light wooden casements to the right—and five ground-floor windows of late 20th-century date with two-, three- and four-light wooden casements. A boarded door with a late 20th-century gabled porch sits between the first and second windows from the left. A 20th-century half-glazed door is positioned between the second window from the left and the stack, and a boarded door between the first and second windows from the right. The projecting stack to the front has a chamfered plinth and chamfered offsets.

The interior retains significant historic features. The former hall, now the kitchen of the right-hand house, contains a pair of 17th-century deep-chamfered cross beams and half beams to the right, all with scroll stops. An open 17th-century fireplace occupies the front wall with dressed stone jambs, a chamfered wooden lintel, a bread oven and a small side window to the east. The former inner room to the right has a plastered spine beam, a blocked old fireplace and an old boarded cupboard door to the right of the fireplace fitted with H-L hinges. The former service room to the left (part of the left-hand cottage) contains a chamfered cross beam and an open fireplace with a wooden lintel and flat stone arch, possibly of 18th-century date. First-floor rooms retain old floorboards and old boarded doors. A blocked window appears at the rear of the first-floor room over the former inner room. Old attic stairs are positioned at the right-hand end, with an old boarded door fitted with strap hinges at their foot.

The roof retains remains of smoke-blackened late-Medieval framing. A hip cruck at the right-hand end features a tenon at its end with a peg hole, probably formerly to take a ridge-piece. A post is attached to the cob wall between the hall and inner room, with a tenoned V-shaped notched top, probably to receive a former diagonally-set ridge-piece. A principal-rafter truss at the lower end of the hall is probably 17th-century, possibly earlier. Two probably 17th or 18th-century principal-rafter trusses span the former service end with pegged collars and mortice-and-tenoned apices. A cross beam over the hall is notched over the lower purlins and has timber tenoned and pegged in its centre lower edge, possibly formerly part of a construction to suspend cooking utensils over the former open hearth. The roof above these historic elements is of late 20th-century date.