Luscombe Farmhouse

Luscombe Farmhouse

This farmhouse dates from the early 17th century with substantial additions and alterations carried out in 1778, the 19th century, and late 19th century. The building is constructed of rendered stone rubble with a steeply pitched asbestos slate roof with gabled ends; the south gable end features asbestos slate hanging. A lean-to roof covers an outshut at the lower right-hand end, and a hipped roof extends to a wing at the front of the higher end. A rendered lateral gabled stack rises at the rear with set offs.

The original early 17th-century plan comprises two large rooms and a central through passage. The lower room to the right has a gable end stack, while the hall to the left is heated from a rear lateral stack with an oven. This stack is integral with a slightly projecting hall bay. At the higher end, a dairy exists which may be all that remains of an earlier house structure. In 1778, a parlour wing was added to the front of the dairy, overlapping the higher end of the hall and featuring a straight staircase at the junction. The outshuts at the front of this wing and at the lower end, with a loft above, are probably 19th-century additions. Late 19th-century refurbishment included refenestration, the insertion of a second straight staircase against the front wall of the lower right-hand room, and the blocking of the passage back by creating a small square room, possibly a pantry.

The exterior presents two storeys with a regular but asymmetrical 3:1 window range. First floor windows are 2-light casements and ground floor windows are 3-light casements, all late 19th century with horizontal glazing bars. A smaller late 19th or early 20th-century 3-light casement appears on the first floor right. A doorway to the former passage at the centre of the 3-window section has a 20th-century glazed door and a late 19th or early 20th-century wooden lattice porch. A 19th-century plank door to the right is concealed by a later outbuilding. All windows and doorways have wooden lintels. A doorway into the outshut at the right end has a loft doorway above. The wing projecting at right angles to the left features late 19th-century 3-light casements on each floor on the inner face, with a slate datestone inscribed 1778 over the ground floor window, and a lean-to outbuilding on the wing end.

The rear elevation shows the right-hand higher end projecting slightly as a hall bay incorporating a rear lateral stack with weathering, set offs, and a rendered shaft. The ground floor window in the hall bay to the right has a slate hoodmould. The window at the centre was formerly the back doorway of the passage, featuring a similar window above and an ovolo moulded timber lintel with run-out stops. Windows at the ground and first floors to the lower left end have stopped chamfered timber lintels. All rear windows are circa late 19th-century 2 and 3-light casements with horizontal glazing bars.

The hall interior contains a fireplace in the rear lateral stack with an ovolo moulded wooden lintel with ogee stops and dressed slate jambs, and chamfered cross-beams where the stops are either buried in the walls or removed. The lower right-hand room has chamfered cross-beams with ogee or hollow step stops; its fireplace at the lower end is blocked. A section of the plank and muntin screen between the passage and lower room is plastered over, but its chamfered head-beam is exposed. The partition between the hall and passage retains one jamb of a 17th-century ovolo and hollow moulded door frame. The straight flight staircase in the 18th century has a balustrade at the top with splat balusters and a stop chamfered square newel with a ball finial. Fielded 2-panel doors appear at the bottom of this staircase and on the first floor, with various 19th-century panelled doors elsewhere in the house. The roof was entirely replaced in the late 20th century except for the feet of the principals at the higher end, which remain resting on the wall plate.