South Stone Farmhouse

South Stone Farmhouse, Molland Stone Cross

A farmhouse, later divided into three cottages, dating from around 1500 with substantial alterations in the early to mid-17th century and further changes in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with some cob to the left-hand end, rendered to the left-hand gable end and rear. It has a gable-ended corrugated-asbestos roof. The chimneys are of coursed rubble with weatherings; two are rendered and the left-hand end stack has a later brick top.

The building originally followed a three-room and through-or-cross-passage plan, facing south, with the ground falling away to the left. It was conceived as a late-Medieval open hall house, consisting of a hall with an inner room to the right (now the kitchen) and a cross passage with a service room beyond to the left. The building was formerly open to the roof continuously from end to end, with rooms probably divided by low screens. In the 17th century, the house underwent major alterations: a first floor was inserted, substantial dividing walls were built, and new chimney stacks were added, including an axial hall stack backing onto the cross passage and end stacks to the inner room and service room. A winder staircase was inserted to the rear of the service-end stack, probably at the same time. The eaves were raised over the hall and inner room section of the house, probably at the time of the floor insertion though possibly slightly later. A lean-to scullery was added to the rear of the inner room, likely when that room became the kitchen, possibly in the 17th century or later. A dog-leg staircase was inserted in the front left-hand corner of the hall, probably in the mid to late 19th century when the house was divided. A bathroom was formed from the rear of the cross passage and part of the left-hand room, probably in the mid to late 20th century.

The building is two storeys high. The front elevation is roughly symmetrical, with four windows to the first floor and three to the ground floor, all late 19th-century two- and three-light wooden casements with roughly-chamfered wooden lintels. A wide boarded cross-passage door between the first and second windows on the front left features a five-part rectangular overlight and wooden lintel. A 20th-century half-glazed door with wooden lintel is positioned at the far right. A late 20th-century rendered hipped slate-roofed porch with a half-glazed door has been added to the left-hand end of the front. A wide raking buttress has been added to the left of the left-hand ground-floor window and to the left-hand gable end, probably in the 19th century. Straight joints in the masonry of the front and rear walls probably indicate phases in the rebuilding of former cob walls.

The interior retains considerable medieval and 17th-century features. The hall contains a chamfered cross beam and two chamfered half beams with scroll stops to the rear and carved runout stops with bays to the front, along with a blocked fireplace. A 17th-century straight-sided chamfered-arched doorway with pegged frame separates the hall from the cross passage. The left-hand ground-floor room (the former service room) has a chamfered spine beam with runout stops, a blocked fireplace, and an oak winder stair to the rear of the stack. The right-hand ground-floor room (the present kitchen) has a chamfered spine beam with straight-cut stops. Remains of the late-Medieval smoke-blackened roof survive, including two trusses, probably jointed crucks, with one over the service room and one over the lower end of the hall. Each truss features a cambered collar, mortice and tenoned apex with a V-shaped notch for the former diagonally-set ridge-piece, and pairs of trenched purlins. Smoke-blackened lower purlins remain over the hall section, as do the lower sections of some smoke-blackened rafters. A probably 17th-century cob dividing wall rises between the hall and the upper room into the roof space, lacking the smoke-blackening of the earlier roof timbers. A late 20th-century roof structure sits above the old roof.