Higher Hunstone Farmhouse

Higher Hunstone Farmhouse, probably built in the early to mid 17th century, has undergone alterations and additions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The ground floor is rendered over stone rubble, while the upper floor is of cob construction. The gable-ended roof is covered in corrugated asbestos, having previously been thatched and slated. A 19th-century lean-to addition is constructed of uncoursed stone rubble with a scantle-slate roof. The original house features a 17th-century dressed stone square stack with offsets and weatherings, and a more recent rendered brick stack. It was originally planned as a three-room layout, facing south-east, with a principal room to the left, a small room in the centre with a passage behind, and a room to the right (now the kitchen). Axial stacks are positioned between the left-hand and central rooms, and at the end of the right-hand room. The main entrance is at the right-hand end of the left-hand room, now accessed via a 20th-century porch. A 19th-century lean-to addition extends from the rear of the left-hand end. The roof over the right-hand end was rebuilt with a lower pitch, and the stack was likely rebuilt in the late 19th century. Further 20th-century lean-to additions are present to the right and at the rear of the right-hand end. According to records, the house formerly extended further to the left. The two-storey building has an asymmetrical facade, with late 19th or early 20th-century wooden casement windows, four to the first floor and three to the ground floor. A half-glazed door, also of the early 20th century, sits between the first and second windows from the left, sheltered by a rendered lean-to porch. The rear lean-to addition on the left-hand side has a 2-light leaded wooden casement with a chamfered frame and mullion, and several other 19th-century wooden casements with wooden lintels. Inside, the left-hand ground-floor room retains a 17th-century deep-chamfered cross beam and dado panelling on the left-hand end wall with a moulded top rail. A dog-leg staircase rises from the central room. The open fireplace in the kitchen has a chamfered wooden lintel with stepped runout stops. The first-floor rooms and roofspace have not been inspected.