Middle Yarnacott

Farmhouse, likely dating to the late 15th century, with remodelling in the 16th and 17th centuries and alterations in 1976/1977. The construction is primarily painted rendered cob and stone, with a thatched roof featuring gable ends. Prominent features include a tall lateral hall stack with offsets, a small ridge stack, and a tall, narrow shaft at the front right end. The original layout was a three-room plan, formerly open hall, but without evidence of a cross-passage, suggesting direct entry to the hall. It may have initially functioned as a longhouse, with the shippon (animal shelter) now incorporated into the living space. Stair turrets are located at the rear of the hall and in a small projection with a thatched lean-to roof at the right gable end.

The farmhouse is two stories high and has a five-window front. Fenestration is largely from the 19th and 20th centuries, consisting of three two-light casements and a four-light casement, each with two panes per light. An original round-headed light doorway has been reset within the interior rear wall of the hall. The ground floor has five two-light casements and a single four-paned light window at the right end, with a 20th-century door. A hall window has been built out to two-story height, aligning with the stack, featuring a small, straight-headed timber squint window on the side wall.

The interior of the hall retains ovolo-moulded ceiling beams, including one full beam and two half beams, with step stops and two bars flanking a small roll. The inner room has a chamfered beam and some 18th-century panelled joinery. A 17th-century doorcase features a chamfered, scroll-stopped surround. In the chamber above the inner room is a scroll-stopped lintel to the fireplace, with a herringbone style slated back to the hearth. Five Barnstaple lead glazed tiles, originally found at the back of the fireplace, are now displayed in the hall. The roof structure over the hall has a raised cruck truss, set between solid cob walls to the apex, with a cranked collar tenoned into soffit mortices on the blades and two tiers of threaded purlins. Two similar trusses are located over the byre end, but with trenched purlins. Smoke blackening is confined to the hall section. A plank and muntin chamber screen originally divided the hall, with surviving mortices indicating a phase of a jettied chamber to the lower end of the hall; the upper section of the screen is missing. The inner room and its chamber above were likely added in the 17th century.