Sletchcott

This is a farmhouse, now a holiday home, likely dating from the early 16th century. It has undergone significant remodelling in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with further extensions in the mid to late 17th century and alterations to the lower end probably in the 18th century. The construction is of painted roughcast stone rubble and cob, with a thatched roof featuring gable ends. A stone rubble axial stack with a brick shaft is located at the left end.

The farmhouse’s plan initially comprised five rooms in a line, with direct access into the second room from the left. The larger, left-hand rooms were originally heated, alongside three smaller rooms to the right, forming the lower end. The building shows an unusual phased development. The original core is the second room from the right, formerly an open hall, evidenced by a raised cruck truss and a jetty beam, both of which appear almost centrally located, suggesting a possible original partial flooring at the lower end. A winder staircase is situated in the rear right-hand corner. A substantial stone rubble stack, inserted in the early 17th century, is positioned at the upper end of the hall, which was then ceiled over. Massive cob partitions separate the hall at each end, and there is no cross-passage; potentially, the initial structure was a single-room, direct-entry open-hall house. The inner room is a mid to late 17th-century addition. The lower end, altered in the late 20th century, likely originally consisted of a dairy and salting house, creating two narrow rooms, with a third room at the right end originally used as a lofted cider-house. These three rooms were unheated.

The exterior has two storeys and five window bays. Most windows are 20th-century replacements, consisting of two-light casements with six panes per light, except for the three-light casements at the left end on both floors. A large 20th-century window is present in the hall. A hipped thatched porch and two further doors are located at the lower end to the right.

Inside, the inner room features an ovolo-moulded fireplace lintel and heavy, square-section axial joists. The hall contains a virtually central cross ceiling jetty beam with deep chamfers and hollow step stops. A chamfered bressumer is at the lower end. At the upper end of the hall, a higher ceiling level indicates a later inserted floor, with two axial beams and half bressumers to the front and rear. The feet of studs of the truss partition above the jetty beam are partially visible. The single raised cruck truss displays a visible morticed and tenoned cambered collar and probably two tiers of threaded purlins. The purlins over the inner room are supported by the hall, inner room and gable end walls. The lower end exhibits the feet of a single truss with rough, straight principals, representing a much later roof structure. Some 19th-century plank doors remain.