Hoppers Gardens

Hoppers Gardens is a tenement farmhouse with probable early 16th-century origins, substantially remodelled and likely extended in the late 16th or early 17th century, with significant alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed mostly of stone rubble and cob, heavily clad in ivy, with a slate roof that is hipped at the left end and gabled to the right.

The house features two axial rendered stacks with tapered caps and a rendered lateral brick stack to the rear centre. Its plan form is complex and revealing of its development. The left-hand side, historically used in conjunction with a poultry business, appears to be the original dwelling, conforming to a three-room and through-passage plan. The left-hand stack backs onto the through-passage and heats a small hall. To the right of the through-passage is a room known as a dairy but now a small parlour, with the rear lateral brick stack appearing to be a late 19th or early 20th-century introduction. The unheated inner room, positioned at a slightly lower level than the hall, may originally have been a parlour with a small winder staircase in the rear left-hand corner providing access to the chamber above. To the right of the dairy is an additional lobby entrance with a facing staircase, and a hall-kitchen heated by the right-hand axial stack. A small back kitchen and possibly smoking chamber occupy a short bay at the right-hand end. A 20th-century two-storey extension extends from the right rear end.

The building presents two storeys with a five-window range. Windows are mainly 19th-century two-light casements with six panes per light, except that at the right end which is three lights. The centre window has two panes per light. The through-passage doorway has a plank door flanked by a two-light casement to the hall with six panes per light and a four-paned sash to the dairy. The inner room at the left end has a plank door inserted into it. The lobby entry has a plank door with a three-light casement of six panes per light to its right. The rear through-passage doorway features a 17th-century chamfered surround and is flanked by outshuts with corrugated iron roofs.

The interior preserves significant features. The through-passage, hall, and inner room remain unaltered from the 20th century onwards. Between the hall and inner room is a fine, probably early 16th-century virtually semi-circular headed-chamfered door surround with one of the pintles intact. A 19th-century mantel shelf covers the original chamfered lintel of the hall fireplace. A timber winder staircase serves the inner room, which has a roughly chamfered ceiling beam. Above the hall-through-passage partition is a hollow step-stopped chamfered bressumer. The hall and kitchen at the right end have a partially boxed-in chamfered ceiling beam and a fireplace lintel covered by a mantel shelf. An infilled creamery niche lies to the left of the lobby entry. The former dairy retains matchboarded dado panelling and has a blocked doorway from the through-passage.

The entire roof structure was replaced in the 20th century, obscuring the house's full development. However, smoke-blackened timber removed from the left end suggests this was originally an open hall house. The higher floor level over the right-hand hall-kitchen indicates this end may have been a late 16th or early 17th-century addition. The building represents an interesting early example of a probable two-unit house.