Nos. 1 And 2 Frogmore Farm

Nos. 1 and 2 Frogmore Farm

A farmhouse in Ashprington, originally built in the early 17th century and substantially altered over time. It was divided into two separate dwellings in the late 20th century.

The building is constructed of local stone rubble with a grouted scantle slate hipped roof. A gable rises on the north-east elevation and rear (north-west) elevation, where a skylight has been inserted. The north-east elevation features a projecting stone stack with an oven at its base and a tall red brick shaft. There is also a central axial stack; the stone stack to the rear wing has been removed.

The farmhouse probably originally followed a three-room and cross-passage plan, facing east, with the lower unheated end to the south-west. The hall was heated from an axial stack backing onto the passage, and the inner room had an end stack. The rear wing may be original or an 18th-century addition. The major remodelling occurred in the early to mid-19th century, when the house was turned to face west instead. An entrance stair hall was built behind the hall in the angle with the rear wing; the lower side partition of the through passage was removed and the front and rear doorways of the passage were blocked. The lower end was partitioned to form a dairy at the south end, with a pantry formed at the rear (west) and a second staircase at the front (east), with an axial passage between them giving access to the dairy. A new doorway was inserted directly into the hall with access through an outshut on the front (east), now facing the farmyard. In the late 20th century the plan was returned to its original orientation and the building divided into two separate dwellings: the higher end (north-east) forms No. 1 and the lower end (south-west) forms No. 2. The stack to the rear wing was removed.

The building is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window range facing south-east. The first floor has five three- and two-light casements with glazing bars and a twelve-pane sash window to the right (No. 1). The ground floor of No. 1 has a glazed garden door to the right and a three-light casement to its left, both beneath red brick segmented arches. A mid-19th-century single-storey outshut with a slate lean-to roof spans the centre of the east front and has been remodelled to provide porches to the two dwellings. The outshut to the angle of No. 2 has been removed, and the 19th-century plank door and unglazed window have been replaced with a six-over-six sash window and a two-light casement, with a further six-over-six sash window to the immediate left of the porch. The fenestration to the rear consists of 20th-century sash windows, some in original openings but others newly inserted. The rear chimney stack has been removed. The 19th-century panelled door to the angle of the right-hand side of the wing has been replaced with a window. The corner of the left-hand end of the rear wing is chamfered. In the angle on the right-hand side of the wing is a 19th-century panelled door with a 20th-century canopy. The left-hand corner is chamfered and the left-hand side of the wing has a 20th-century twelve-pane sash in a gable with shaped and pierced bargeboards. The lower right-hand corner of the building is also chamfered.

The interior has not been fully inspected but is likely to retain a large hall fireplace in the axial stack with its lintel supported on a moulded corbel at one end, and chamfered cross-beams. The building features 19th-century joinery including a mid-19th-century open-well staircase with stick balusters and a moulded handrail ramped up to turned newels. The roof structure was replaced in the 19th century.

Frogmore Farmhouse was erected in the early 17th century and remodelled on several occasions: in the 18th century, in the early to mid-19th century, and again in the late 20th century when it was divided into two separate dwellings. The farmhouse is depicted on the first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1888 and 1906 respectively, and comparison with the current Ordnance Survey map shows that the footprint of the building is largely unaltered. The farm buildings were converted to residential use in 1990.