Town Farm, Including Wall Adjoining South-East And Railings Adjoining East

This is a farmhouse, now used as a farm store, dating back to the 15th or early 16th century. It is constructed of roughcast rendered stone and cob, with a corrugated asbestos roof that is hipped at the upper end and gabled at the street front. The building has a rubble chimney extended in brick at the upper end, an offset brick stack to the rear, and a large lateral hall stack at the front, featuring slated offsets, a tapered cap, and a small rounded bread oven in the angle.

The original layout was a basic 3-cell cross passage plan, but with a slightly projecting gabled “cross-wing” creating a truncated L-shape. The cross-passage was widened to create an additional middle room. A 1½-storey outshut was added to the rear, in the angle of the L-shape. In the 19th century, the upper end was boarded off and a rear staircase was added, creating a separate single-cell dwelling.

The front facade has three windows with horizontal sliding sash windows, eight panes over eight panes, on the left side, followed by a three-light window with glazing bars, and then a two-light window (six panes each) to the right of the stack, inserted into a former large opening. Below, there's a sash window with eight panes over eight panes at the upper end, to the left of a six-panelled door. A tall four-light hall window with ovolo mullions originally had leaded lights, but now has glazing bars. The cross-passage door, to the right of the stack, has four panels in the upper part and planked lower panels. The rear side has a three-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions in the gable-ended "cross-wing," over a two-light window with a timber surround. The rest of the rear range has a small oblong opening to the left of three square openings with timber lintels, above which is a two-light casement. The street gable end has two sashes with eight panes over eight panes.

Much of the original internal joinery remains, including fleur-de-lis hinges on the doors. A wooden newel staircase has been added to the rear of the hall, with a moulded handrail. In the lower end of the hall is a raised cruck truss with chamfered arch-braces to a slightly cambered collar, along with a further truss with lighter straight principals. Both trusses have two tiers of purlins threaded through the cruck truss, with a trenched lower truss. Rafters are mostly intact, and the hipped construction at the lower end is smoke-blackened. The roof structure over the hall was entirely replaced in the 20th century. In the cross-wing at the upper end, one main truss with threaded purlins has survived; there is no evidence of smoke-blackening here.

The property includes a section of whitewashed stone rubble wall with tiled capping and wrought iron railings with spear-headed shafts, running along the south-east side of the road and along the east side of the farmyard. Town Farm is considered a remarkable survival of a townfarm within a nucleated village, and is associated with the village’s open field system, known as the West Field.