Stitchpool Farmhouse

Stitchpool Farmhouse

A farmhouse dating from the early to mid 17th century, possibly incorporating an earlier house that was remodelled. Probably late 18th-century additions and mid 19th-century alterations followed, with some internal changes around 1900.

The ground floor is constructed of painted sandstone rubble, with rendered cob above, partly rebuilt in painted sandstone rubble. Internal walls are cob. Gable-ended Welsh-slate roofs cover the building, higher over the left-hand end and with a catslide over an outshut at the rear. The left-hand addition has a gable-ended scantle slate roof. The 17th-century sandstone square stacks have weatherings, with the axial stack rendered. The rear stack has a 19th-century red-brick top stage with dentil bands, and an extra 19th-century brick flue extends to the right-hand end stack.

The plan develops from a probable 17th-century three-room layout with cross passage, facing south as the site falls to the right. It comprises a central hall with an axial stack to the right, a probable former cross passage also to the right, a former service room beyond that with an external end stack, and a former inner room (now the kitchen) to the left with an external lateral stack to the rear. A probable 17th-century outshut at the rear of the hall section incorporates a dairy. A slate one-roomed addition from probably the 18th century extends to the left, evident from straight joints and lower roof pitch, containing a ground-floor scullery and loft above approached by external steps. The front wall of the hall and kitchen end was rebuilt in stone, probably during the 19th century, with eaves likely raised at that time. Former doorways in the front wall of the kitchen and right-hand end room, probably from later alterations, are now blocked, suggesting the house may have been divided. Internal alterations around 1900 to the right-hand end have obscured possible evidence of the former cross passage. A circa 1900 lean-to stands at the rear of the right-hand end.

The building is two storeys with one-storey sections. The asymmetrically fenestrated front has four windows with late 19th and 20th-century two-light wooden casements, mostly in original openings. The rebuilt hall and kitchen section has a symmetrical two-window front. The probable former cross passage entrance lies between the second and third windows from the right, marked by a four-panelled door with a pegged chamfered frame of around 1900 and a rendered 20th-century lean-to porch. A blocked doorway sits between the first and second ground-floor windows from the right, and another to the left of the left-hand ground-floor window, both evident from straight joints. The left-hand addition has a 19th-century boarded door with a chamfered wooden frame and wooden lintel. The left-hand gable end features a flight of external stone steps leading to a boarded loft door with strap hinges, wooden frame, and lintel. The lateral stack to the rear includes a lean-to bread oven.

Inside, the left-hand ground-floor room (kitchen) contains two 17th-century chamfered spine beams with stepped stops and an old stone fireplace to the rear with a 19th-century wooden surround. The central ground-floor room (former hall) has two 17th-century double ovolo-moulded crossbeams and an ovolo-moulded wall beam to the right. A small scullery or outside kitchen to the left probably contains an 18th-century cupboard with two boarded doors and H-L hinges. The dairy in the outshut at the hall's rear features slate shelves. The right-hand ground-floor room has a cased spine beam. Old boarded doors with strap hinges open to the first-floor room. A late 17th or early 18th-century raised and fielded panel, reused as a hatch, sits to the left. The roof space was only partly inspected, but 19th-century bolted trusses with principal rafters and collars were noted over the central sections, probably dating from when the eaves were raised.