Wellesley Farmhouse Including Privy Approximately 15 Metres To West

This is a 17th-century farmhouse with a 19th-century extension and alterations. It is constructed of painted rendered stone, with some cob at the rear, and has a slate roof with late 19th-century crested ridge tiles and gable ends. The farmhouse has stone rubble stacks at each end, topped with tapered caps and drips. A tall brick stack, part of the rear lateral hall, is enclosed within a 19th-century two-story dairy and salting-house. The original plan consisted of three rooms connected by a through-passage, with a principal staircase in the wide through-passage. There is a two-story porch and secondary stairs, along with former servants’ garret rooms in a short, right-angled gable-ended projection to the rear, creating an overall L-shaped plan.

The front of the farmhouse has two stories and a partial attic story, with a four-window range featuring 19th-century two-light casement windows with six panes per light to the porch, and 20th-century casement windows of three lights elsewhere. The porch entrance has a timber lintel, with an ovolo moulded inner arris finishing in pyramid stops. Wooden benches flank the porch. A fine 17th-century inner doorway features cyma reversa moulding and ornate scroll stops to the durns, and a plank door in a 17th-century style with cover strips and strap hinges. The rear projection includes a timber-framed mullion window of two lights in the attic story.

The ground floor interior has been altered in the 19th century, featuring a register grate, a 19th-century chimney-piece in the lower end, and dado matchboarding in the hall and inner room. The hall doorway to the through-passage has an overlight with three stained glass panels. The dairy retains its original fittings and a lime ash floor. The staircase has an 18th-century two-panelled door and a 17th-century eight-panelled door. Doorways to the principal chambers above the inner room feature chamfered durns with small scroll stops and eight-panelled doors. The secondary stair landing has 17th-century joinery in the cupboards.

The roof structure is of three phases. The earliest section, from the 17th century, remains over the hall and through-passage. This is an unusual coupled rafter roof with lap-jointed collars and ashlar pieces, featuring two wall plates on each side supporting the rafter ends and ashlar pieces. A later truss, incorporating straight heavy principals but sharing the same jointing method, crosses the hall/inner room dividing wall and includes a lath and plaster partition. Two tiers of purlins are threaded through the partition. Replacement trusses were added over the lower end, and it appears that heavy principals were always present at that end, as evidenced by the former presence of purlins threaded into the end rafter. A lean-to privy contains triple-seated wooden lavatory fittings.