Somerfield House, Including Yard Entrance And Gates Adjoining At Right End

Somerfield House, which includes a yard entrance and gates at the right end, is a house dating from the early 16th century, possibly incorporating earlier materials. It was remodeled in the late 16th or early 17th century and has undergone alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of roughcast rendered stone rubble and cob, topped with asbestos slate roofs.

It features a front lateral stack with offsets and a brick shaft, along with an inserted lateral brick stack towards the right end. The layout includes an end through-passage with a hall and an inner room to the right; the lower end has likely been rebuilt as a separate cottage adjoining to the left, which is not included in the listing.

The house has a two-window range with two 2-light casements, each with six panes per light, situated above a half-glazed door that has a 3-pane, 2-light window to the left. The yard entrance at the right end boasts large double plank doors with slatted grilles in the upper parts. Inside, the hall retains a plank and muntin screen made up of nine sections, with a 19th-century inserted doorcase at the upper end. There is some early joinery present, including a square-headed doorway from the through-passage to the hall and several old plank doors.

The roof structure features a truss above the hall and inner room that is thoroughly smoke-blackened and has an unusual saddle and short ridge support in a type FI apex arrangement, as noted in the Cruck Catalogue by Alcock. The truss over the hall has been replaced, while the truss at the lower end, which has threaded purlins and is also smoke-blackened, has been closed off to form a partition with the adjoining cottage.