Illers Leary Farmhouse Including Shippon Attached At West End

The building is a farmhouse with a shippon attached at the west end. It likely originated in the early 16th century, with significant remodelling occurring in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and further alterations in the 19th century. The construction is of stone rubble and rendered cob, with a slate roof featuring gable ends. The shippon has an asbestos slate roof. There is a brick stack at the right gable end and a stone rubble front lateral hall stack with a tapered cap and projecting bread oven.

The original layout is now unclear due to later changes, but it likely began as an open hall with a cross-passage to the left. A blocked doorway, on each floor, once provided access from the passage to the lofted shippon, although the shippon was largely rebuilt in the 20th century and the floor has been removed. In the late 16th or early 17th century, a small jettied chamber may have been created above the cross-passage. The hall was later floored and a stack built onto the front. At this time, the cross-passage seems to have been relocated to the right of the hall, with the entire right-hand section being an addition of this date. A solid cob partition rises to the apex of the roof between the hall and the new cross-passage, and the former cross-passage became a narrow inner room. The lower right-hand end was largely rebuilt in the 19th century, with a gable end stack likely inserted during this time. A blocked front doorway in this room suggests the house may have been divided into two occupancies at that point. The original location of the staircase is uncertain, with two likely 19th-century staircases present: one at the rear of the later cross-passage, leading from the rear right-hand corner of the hall, and a steeper flight of stairs from the rear left-hand corner.

The exterior has a 4-window range featuring 20th-century 2-light casements. A hall window has a slate leanto roof built out in line with the hall stack. Plank doors are on each side; the right one has a rectangular overlight, and the left is half-glazed. A right-hand window is placed within a blocked doorway to the lower end room.

Inside, a probable jetty beam is roughly chamfered to the left end of the hall, while a wide chamfered bressumer has run-out stops to the right end. The headrail of a plank and muntin screen, which incorporates a semi-circular arched doorway head, has been reset to create a lobby providing access to the shippon and hall. This partition was removed in the 20th century. A single late 16th/early 17th century clean truss is located over the right-hand cross-passage, with the principals cut off above the morticed and tenoned collar. The roof-space above the hall is not directly accessible, but a break in the cob partition reveals smoke-blackened timbers.