Lower Sheepsbyre

The Lower Sheepsbyre is a farmhouse dating from the early to mid-17th century, though it may incorporate earlier fabric. It has undergone alterations in the 19th century. The construction is of rendered stone rubble, with some cob towards the right end. The roof is hipped and thatched, featuring a brick stack at the left end and a tall rendered stack to the rear, serving a lateral hall, with offsets and a bread oven projection. Originally, it was planned as a 3-room and cross-passage design, with the lower end to the left, containing a staircase that runs from back to front. The end section has been divided axially into two rooms, a dairy at the front and a former pumphouse at the rear; it appears to have always been unheated. An outshut is attached to the rear right end.

The exterior has two storeys and a 4-window range. Windows are largely modern 3-light casements. The ground floor of the inner room end is blank. A plank front door, with glazed upper panels, leads to the through-passage doorway. A 3-light casement window with rectangular leaded lights is situated on the upper storey at the right end.

Inside, the hall features two cross ceiling beams with roll-hollow-ogee mouldings. The hall fireplace has a 19th-century lintel concealing an original one, with a bread oven to the left and a seat recess to the right. Thin partitions divide the passage and upper end of the hall. The original 17th-century plank and muntin screen, originally at the upper end of the hall, has been reused as an axial partition dividing the inner room end. One section is four planks wide, and another is two planks wide, incorporating a now-blocked low doorway. The muntins and doorway are ovolo moulded on the dairy side, the moulding stopped around half a metre from the sill with peg-holes suggesting a former integral hall bench; the pump-house side has straight chamfers. The 19th-century staircase and joinery are largely original. The roof structure is of early 19th-century timber, featuring six King post trusses, with the king posts dovetailed into the tie beams and apexes, and with raking struts. There is no evidence of smoke-blackening. Lower and Higher Sheepsbyre are a pair of closely situated early farmhouses, both facing south and situated alongside original front farm courtyards, which retain relatively unspoilt ranges of farm buildings.