Browns Farm Including Outbuilding (Also Known As The Dairy) Adjoining South West

Browns Farm is a farmhouse with an adjoining outbuilding (also known as The Dairy) at its south-west end, located in Dittisham, Capton. The building represents an early 18th-century remodelling and extension of an earlier house dating from the early 17th century or before.

The exterior is constructed of slate rubble with red brick window arches and is roofed in slurried grouted scantle slate with gabled ends and early crested clay ridge tiles. The rear outshuts have asbestos slate roofs. Cast iron moulded gutters at the front feature lion mask joints. The outbuilding at the lower left-hand end has a steeply pitched corrugated iron roof ramped up to the higher main roof of the house. There are two rendered lateral stacks at the rear of the front rooms rising from the rear outshut roofs, an axial stack with red brick shaft at the lower end of the house, and a rendered stack at the lower left-hand gable end of the outbuilding.

The existing house resulted from extensive early 18th-century remodelling and enlargement of the original early 17th-century or earlier structure. The lower end was probably originally to the west, with its hall (now the hall/kitchen) heated from a lateral stack at the back. The cross or through passage would have been where a small room now stands between the hall/kitchen and the lower left-end outbuilding. The early 18th-century remodelling created a double-depth plan with two principal front rooms: a large hall/kitchen to the left and a parlour to the right, with an entrance hall between them. A dog-leg staircase sits at the back in a single-storey plus attic outshut, with shallow unheated rooms behind the parlour and hall/kitchen. At the lower left end is a long range, now an outbuilding but originally containing a gable-end stack with a fireplace and ovens. Between this outbuilding and the hall/kitchen is a small heated room, possibly created in the 19th century within the original cross or through passage.

The front elevation is two storeys with an attic (not in use) and presents an almost symmetrical three-window composition plus a one-window bay to the left. All original window openings have segmental red brick arches with small keystones and are of various sizes, with the larger parlour window to the right and bedchamber window above. Only the first-floor window to the left retains an early three-light casement with glazing bars and old glass; the others have been replaced by late 20th-century casements. The right-hand windows are said to have originally been tripartite sashes. The one-window bay to the left has 19th-century two-light casements with glazing bars. A central doorway features an 18th-century fielded six-panel door with a small rectangular overlight with glazing bars, and is protected by an 18th- or 19th-century open-fronted porch with internal seats; the porch's gabled roof is a replacement. To the left, the steep corrugated iron roof sweeps down over the lower-end outbuilding, which has blocked openings and one loft door.

The rear elevation shows the main roof carried down at the back over single-storey and attic rear outshuts either side of a central stair tower, which rises to the attic with a hipped roof. Various small casements appear at the rear, with the first floor of the stair tower having a 19th-century fixed light window with margin glazing bars. The rendered lateral stacks rise from the outshut roof, the kitchen stack to the right being larger with slate weathering at the base of the shaft. There is a single-storey outshut to the right behind the lower-end outbuilding.

The interior retains most of its 18th-century joinery, including fielded two-, four-, and six-panel doors, with 18th-century panelled doors surviving on the first floor. The parlour to the right features a moulded wooden cornice and a niche in the higher end wall with a round arch, fluted pilasters, and shaped shelves. There is a moulded dado rail and chimneypiece with fluted pilasters, dentil cornice, and a Victorian cast-iron grate. The hall/kitchen has exposed ceiling joists and a large open fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel with hollow step stops and an 18th-century moulded cornice shelf. The small room off the hall/kitchen contains a small late 19th-century chimneypiece. The partition between the hall/kitchen and entrance hall is a plank door screen with moulded muntins. The hall floor is paved in slate. A panelled door at the bottom of the staircase features bars resembling glazing bars in the top panel but without glass. The dog-leg staircase has splat balusters, moulded handrail, and square newels with moulded caps. The lower left-end outbuilding is said to contain a large open fireplace with ovens at its lower gable end, though this was inaccessible at the time of survey.

The early 18th-century roof over the house survives, featuring straight principals with lapped and pegged collars. The roof over the lower-end outbuilding also has lapped and pegged collars.