Middlecott Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Likely dating from the late 16th century, it was remodelled and extended in the early to mid 17th century, with 20th-century alterations. The farmhouse is constructed of stone rubble, with the upper storey rendered. It has an asbestos slate roof with gable ends, and a brick ridge stack. The plan is unusual. The original core appears to have comprised a hall and a cross-passage containing a staircase, the hall being heated by a stack at its inner end. Beyond the hall is a former dairy with a single-storey salting house added to its right end. The lower end, rebuilt in the 17th century, consists of a parlour/kitchen wing extending to the rear at right angles to the main range, creating an overall L-shaped plan, with a dairy outshut to the rear. The farmhouse has two storeys and a four-window front. The windows are 20th-century replacements. Inside the parlour/kitchen are two cross ceiling beams with wide chamfers and hollow step stops. The fireplace lintel has been replaced, and there are three brick-lined bread ovens, one on each side, the central one being filled in. A doorway from the passage has ovolo-moulded scroll-stopped durns. The hall has rough chamfered beams, and the fireplace lintel is similarly chamfered with scroll stops. The former dairy has a chamfered, hollow step-stopped ceiling beam. Doors to the chamber over the parlour/kitchen and the small room over the stairs have chamfered, hollow step-stopped durns; the latter is partially cased in. Fireplaces to the chambers over the hall and parlour/kitchen have scroll-stopped chamfered lintels. A first-floor stack, now demolished, was formerly located at the front end of the parlour/kitchen wing. Solid stone rubble walls rise to the apex of the roof, dividing the three roof spaces over the parlour/kitchen, hall and cross-passage, and the dairy end. The three trusses over the hall have straight principals, trenched purlins, and typical 17th-century lap-jointed collars. Notably, the two trusses nearest the stack have Alcock Type F1 apexes with short saddles and mortices for short uprights formerly carrying a diagonally-set ridge, but there is no evidence of smoke-blackening. A single principal truss exists over the dairy end, formerly with a morticed and tenoned collar, which was later altered to a lap-jointed collar. Over the parlour/kitchen, one principal truss survives, along with the feet of a second, previously with threaded purlins, both set at right angles to the main range.