The Longhouse

The Longhouse is a 17th-century former cross-passage house, possibly with earlier origins, and refurbished in the late 20th century. It is constructed of rubble stone with a rendered front, and has asbestos-tile roofs. The windows are timber-framed.

The building follows a single-depth, three or four-room plan, originally a cross-passage design, although some internal walls have been removed and replaced in the 20th century. The south-facing principal elevation is asymmetrical, with five bays. The main entrance is located to the right of centre, featuring a 19th-century studded plank door with wrought-iron hinges within a 20th-century, pitched-roof porch. Most of the windows are late 19th century and include two, three, and five-light casements on both floors, as well as a 15-pane ground-floor window. The bay to the right projects forward. The west elevation, facing the road, incorporates a mounting block, blocked ground-floor and first-floor openings, and a glazed first-floor arrow-slit. A short wing to the north-east contains a door and a first-floor three-light window.

The current main entrance hall marks the former cross passage, and a blocked rear doorway is visible in the north wall. A rubble-stone internal wall with a pointed-arched opening sits to the west of the hall. The principal ground-floor rooms feature chamfered-and-stopped ceiling beams, and there are several internal timber plank doors with strap hinges, of varying dates. A large fireplace with a timber bressumer and two cloam (bread) ovens is located in the centre of the house, facing into the east-end room. Behind the fireplace is a separate smoke chamber with a conical roof and two pointed-arched doors, one leading through to the passage and the other (blocked) in the north wall. Further fireplaces have been added at either end of the building. Two timber dogleg staircases are present, one in the centre of the building and the other in the east-end room. The first floor includes a stone fireplace at the east end with 17th-century monochrome patterned sgraffito plaster decoration and a late 17th or early 18th-century stud-and-plank screen in the west-end room. The roof is a late 17th/early 18th-century collared timber-pegged structure. The entire building was refurbished in the late 20th century, and some partitions and joinery date to this period.