Lower Farleigh Farmhouse

SX75SE 4/221

DIPTFORD Lower Farleigh Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Circa early C19 Local stone rubble with slate hung front. Slurried rag slate roof with gabled ends and plastered coved eaves. Large stone rubble gable end chimney stacks with slate drips and tapered tops. Plan: 2-room plan front range with a central entrance hall containing the stairs. Both rooms are heated from gable end stacks, the right hand room is the parlour the left hand room the hall (living room with a large fireplace;) behind the left hand room there is a wing containing the kitchen with a large gable end fireplace and a back staircase. Across the left hand end and against the left side of the wing there is an outbuilding with a (wool?) loft above with access from external stairs in the rear angle. Later in the C19 a wing containing the dairy was added to the back of the right hand end. The space between the two wings was filled in later. Exterior: storeys. Almost symmetrical 3-window range, the doorway very slightly to the right of centre with an early C19 fielded panel door. Early C19 16-pane sashes and first floor centre a 12-pane sash; all with slate cills. To the left a lower half-hipped roof over the outbuilding its end is flush with the front hall of the house and has 1 small C19 2-light casement with glazing bars on the ground and first floors. the left side of the outbuilding has a C19 plank door with a slated canopy above; and in the rear angle a flight of external stone steps up to the loft with a porch at the top of the steps. At the back the original kitchen wing to the right is slate hung on the side with 2-and 3-light casements with glazing bars, and a stack at the gable end. The rear wing to the left is a later C19 addition, although there is no straight masonry joint on the outer wall. The space between the two wings has been filled in with a flat roof addition. Interior: A round arch at the bottom of the stairs has a panelled intrados and import mouldings. Part of the partition between the hall and the left hand room has been removed; this room has a large fireplace with an unchamfered timber lintel. The right hand room, the parlour has a circa 1840 chimneypiece. The kitchen has a large fireplace. The plan is interesting for a relatively small farmhouse in having a parlour and the traditional hall/living room as well as a kitchen in a rear wing containing a back staircase. Farleigh was a Domesday Manor.

Listing NGR: SX7564853360