Lower Washbourne Including Walls, Gate Piers And Steps To The South West And West

Lower Washbourne is a farmhouse dating from the early to mid-18th century with minor alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is constructed of dressed slate rubble with a hipped roof of asbestos slate tiles and black glazed ridge tiles. The chimneys are dressed slate with rendered shafts.

The house is L-shaped in plan, built as a single phase in the early to mid-18th century. The north-west wing runs on an east-west axis and contains two principal rooms: the parlour to the west and the hall-kitchen to the east, with an entrance hall between them. Behind this is an integral outshut running to the rear containing a dairy and pantry, with a staircase rising through it. The south-east wing runs on a north-south axis and has a cross passage with a back doorway connecting to the hall-kitchen. This wing contains a back kitchen and small unheated room. A first floor doorway in the end wall provided access to what was probably a wool store over the back kitchen, now converted to living accommodation. The attic is accessed by the staircase in the north-west wing, which serves the main bedchambers.

The exterior shows two storeys and an attic. Each of the west and south wings has regular two-window fronts overlooking a small front garden. The window openings have cambered brick arches with keystones. The south elevation of the west wing retains 19th-century two-light casements with glazing bars and slate sills on the ground and first floors (the left-hand windows are 20th-century replacements). The ground floor left-hand window of the west elevation of the south wing has been enlarged with a concrete lintel and a 20th-century three-light casement. The main doorway is to the right of the south elevation of the west wing, with a wide 19th-century six-panel door now enclosed in a 20th-century glazed porch positioned in the angle between the two wings. The west end of the west wing has 19th-century two-light casements on each floor and an old plank door in the outshut.

The north elevation shows the main roof carried down over the single-storey and attic integral outshut, with an integral stair tower at the centre rising above the outshut roof. Historical photographs in the owner's possession show the stair tower was formerly slate-hung with a hipped roof. It contains a probably 18th-century three-light casement with glazing bars and three small lower lights (the top lights are now blocked). The outshut has two three-light casements, the left-hand one being original with a chamfered timber lintel, the right-hand one dating from the 20th century.

The rear east elevation has first-floor three-light casements with glazing bars and slate sills. The right-hand first-floor window is original with a chamfered timber lintel; the left-hand is a 20th-century metal-frame window. Two early 19th-century ground-floor two-light casements with glazing and slate sills remain, the left-hand one retaining its original chamfered timber lintel. A back doorway to the left has cover strips and wrought-iron hinges, with the lateral stack to its left. Two probably 19th-century raking buttresses stand to the right. To the right of the buttresses is a 19th-century two-light casement in the attic of the outshut, with a later doorway below and a late 20th-century porch.

The front garden is enclosed by walls, gate-piers and steps dating from approximately the 18th or early 19th century. The west wall is of slate rubble with pitched slate copping and square gate-piers supporting a late 19th-century wrought-iron gate. The south side has a retaining wall with a steep flight of stone steps rising to the higher ground level south of the house.

The interior plan is intact with surviving 18th-century joinery. First-floor doors are 18th-century two-panel doors, some with fielded panels, whilst the ground floor has 19th-century replacement four-panel doors. The parlour contains cupboard niches (though the doors have been removed), though the ceiling plaster has been removed and the fireplace is 20th-century. The hall-kitchen has a large open fireplace with dressed slate jambs and brick lining, though the timber lintel has been replaced; the ceiling plaster has been removed revealing closely spaced joists. The back kitchen has roughly chamfered ceiling beams with run-out stops and a fireplace with a roughly chamfered timber lintel. The boarding on the stud partition between the pantry and back kitchen has been removed. The dog-leg staircase has simple handrails and a stand partition instead of a balustrade. The first-floor room at the west end contains a cupboard with arched fielded panels.

The roof structure features straight principal rafters morticed at the apex with halved and pegged collars.