North Stone Farmhouse, Shippon Adjoining To West And Garden Walls Adjoining To Front

North Stone Farmhouse with adjoining shippon and garden walls to the front, Molland.

This is a farmhouse and adjoining shippon of significant historical importance. The main house dates to around 1550 and was substantially altered in the early to mid-17th century, probably including partial restoration and additions. Minor alterations and additions were made in the 18th century and again in the mid to late 19th century. The adjoining shippon is from the mid to late 19th century, though it may incorporate some earlier fabric.

The buildings are rendered, probably mainly over cob with additions in random stone rubble. The main house has a gable-ended asbestos-slate roof, formerly thatched. Welsh-slate roofs cover outshuts at the rear, now with 20th-century bituminous covering. The shippon has stone rubble walls with some cob to the rear and a half-hipped Welsh-slate roof. Both buildings feature dressed-stone square stacks with weatherings; the front stack has a chamfered offset and tapered cap.

The house originally had a three-room and cross-passage plan, facing south, with ground falling to the left. It was a late-Medieval open-hall house, formerly consisting of a hall with an inner room (now the kitchen) to the right and a cross passage to the left with a former service room beyond, which has since been demolished. The entire space was originally open to the roof, with rooms probably divided by low partitions.

The 17th-century alterations were substantial. They included insertion of a first floor, addition of an external lateral stack to the front wall of the hall and an end stack to the inner room, and probably the addition of the outshut at the rear of the hall and lower end, which incorporated a staircase at the rear of the hall and a dairy at the rear of the cross passage. Dividing cob walls rising to eaves level were inserted in the 17th century, possibly replacing low wooden screens. A great chamber was probably formed over the hall in the 17th century, evidenced by higher ceilings. The former service room was demolished at some time, probably in the 17th or 18th century, and a lean-to was added at the rear of the inner room, probably also in the 18th century. The inner room end was extended at some point, probably in the 19th century.

The exterior presents an asymmetrical three-window front with a projecting lateral stack to the left of centre and a tall stone shaft. Late 19th and 20th-century two-light small-paned wooden casements are present. A wide former cross-passage doorway to the left has a 19th-century boarded door and large wooden frame. A 20th-century half-glazed kitchen door is positioned between the first and second windows from the right, with a late 20th-century lean-to glazed porch. The 17th-century outshut to the rear has a two-light wooden staircase window below the eaves to the left and a wooden cross window to the dairy at the right. A lower lean-to addition to the left has a late 20th-century wooden casement to the left and a two-light small-paned wooden casement in the left-hand return with wrought-iron bars and a pegged frame.

The shippon adjoining to the west has a boarded loft door to the front and right, and a central ground-floor two-leaf boarded door with a small 20th-century casement to the right. Probably 19th-century stone walls enclose a small garden to the front. A one-storey lean-to at the front to the left has two stable-type doors and 20th-century metal casements.

The interior is particularly significant. The central ground floor room, formerly the hall, contains a plastered 17th-century deep-chamfered cross beam and half beams, a mid-20th-century brick fireplace surround with a large opening, and an 18th-century cupboard in the right-hand wall with raised and fielded panelled doors and H hinges. An old boarded door to the cross passage and the front door of the cross passage both have strap hinges. The dairy to the rear of the passage, partly in the lean-to and partly in the rear of the passage, retains an old door and low slate shelves.

The former inner room, now the kitchen, has plastered 17th-century deep-chamfered cross beams and half beams, with a bench along the left-hand wall. A small dairy at the rear of the later addition to the right has a plain wooden beam and low slate shelves.

A 17th-century dog-leg stair is located in the outshut to the rear of the right-hand end of the hall. An old doorway, probably from the 17th century, connects the top of the stairs to a room in the roofspace of the outshut, with a boarded door and an old frame with a chamfered head. A door to the left-hand bedroom, dating to around 1700, has two raised and fielded panels. Other old boarded doors and 18th or early 19th-century four-panelled doors are present throughout.

The roof is notably complete and represents one of the finest surviving late-Medieval smoke-blackened roofs in the parish. It consists of a four-bay structure with two bays over the hall, constructed of four side-pegged jointed cruck trusses, each with a cranked collar (removed from the left-hand end truss) and mortice and tenoned apex. The trusses are supported by pairs of trenched purlins and a diagonally-set ridge-piece. Largely complete survival of smoke-blackened rafters and battens remains. The truss over the cross passage appears less blackened than those directly over the hall. Due to higher first-floor ceilings, it was not possible at the time of survey to inspect closely the roofspace over the centre and right-hand end of the house. The floor level in the bay over the former cross passage is lower, possibly once used as a storage loft, evidenced by a boarded door in the left-hand end truss leading to the loft over the adjoining shippon. A piece of reused 17th-century carved panelling is incorporated in the truss in the left-hand end wall. The roofspace over the addition at the right-hand end was not inspected at the time of survey.

The shippon adjoining to the west is mainly late 19th century but probably incorporates some earlier 17th or 18th-century work. It stands on the site of the putative service room and might even incorporate some fabric of that date.