Sindercombe Farmhouse

Sindercombe Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the mid-17th century, with probable mid- to late-19th century lean-to additions and remodelling in the early to mid-20th century. It is constructed of stone rubble to the ground floor and cob to the first floor, all rendered. The roof is gable-ended, covered in asbestos slate, with Welsh slate roofs to the lean-to additions. Red brick stacks are present.

The original plan likely comprised three rooms facing south. The room on the right has an axial stack to the left, and the room on the left has an integral end stack. The central room was originally unheated, with an entrance to the front and a staircase to the rear. Lean-to additions are present at the right-hand end and along the rear, incorporating a dairy. Photographs suggest the house may have been extended to the left, possibly on two occasions. It’s possible the original structure was a 17th-century one-room cottage to the right, later extended. The owner’s report indicates the staircase was formerly located at the rear of the axial stack, further supporting this possibility.

The farmhouse is two storeys high with single-storey lean-to additions. The front elevation has an asymmetrical three-window arrangement, with probably early 20th-century three-light wooden casements. A 19th-century four-panelled door sits between the first and second windows from the left, with beaded flush lower panels and a beaded wooden frame. A late-20th-century gabled wooden porch lean-to addition provides access to a 20th-century boarded door. A rear lean-to addition contains two 19th-century three-light wooden casements and a boarded door in the end, protected by a wooden lintel.

Inside, the right-hand ground-floor room (now the kitchen) features a pair of 17th-century deep-chamfered spine beams with scroll stops, and 17th-century chamfered wall beams with convex runout stops. A 17th-century cupboard is also in the right-hand room, and a 17th-century two-light wooden window is located in the former rear wall behind the stack. The central ground-floor room contains an old cupboard to the right of the staircase. The left-hand ground-floor room has a boxed spine beam. The dairy, in the rear outshut, has a stone floor, low slate shelves, and boarded window shutters. An earlier photograph reveals a blocked doorway to the left of the present front door with a wooden lintel, and straight joints below the second ground-floor window from the right, suggesting it was previously a doorway. The windows shown in the older photograph are 17th or 18th-century leaded casements, though the fenestration pattern appears unchanged since then.