Weeks

Weeks is a farmhouse with an adjoining outbuilding, dating from the early 17th century or earlier, with significant alterations and extensions made around the early 19th century. The buildings are constructed of stone rubble walls, predominantly granite, with a whitewashed front elevation. The roof is covered in dry slate, hipped at the higher left end and gabled to the right; the outbuilding at the lower right has a lower corrugated iron roof with a half-hipped end. The chimneys have rendered shafts, including a projecting stack at the higher left end and a lateral stack with a substantial set-off that forms an integral part of the hall bay at the front.

The plan follows a traditional 3-room and through-passage arrangement. The lower right section, now an outbuilding, may originally have been a kitchen open to the roof with a fireplace backing onto the passage, though it may have also served as a shippon before later conversion and eventual use again as an outbuilding. The hall to the left of the passage features a lateral stack at its front with an integral projecting hall bay to its left, and a newel stair housed in a rectangular projecting turret at the back. The inner room to the left is heated from a gable-end stack. Around the early 19th century, an unheated outshut was built behind the inner room and hall.

The exterior presents a 2-storey asymmetrical front of three windows plus the outbuilding to the right. The passage entrance sits right of centre and features a 19th-century plank door with a corrugated iron canopy on timber cantilevers and a late 20th-century casement above. The large lateral stack projects to its left, incorporating a 2-storey hall bay with a 19th-century 3-light casement on the ground floor with a large timber lintel and a 2-light casement on the first floor, both glazed with bars. To the left of the hall bay is a 19th-century 12-pane sash lighting the inner room, with a 2-light casement above it. The outbuilding to the right has a lower roof and is accessed by a narrow flight of stone steps up to a wide loft doorway and a ground-floor doorway, both fitted with old plank doors and timber lintels. Above the ground-floor doorway is a row of pigeon holes. The lower end wall of the outbuilding has a small blocked ventilation hole on the ground floor with a rendered patch above, probably indicating repair work, and pigeon holes beneath the eaves on the end wall.

On the rear elevation, the main roof is carried down over the rectangular stair turret at the centre, though its eaves have been raised with concrete blocks. A passage doorway to the left of the turret has been narrowed and features a plank door with a 19th-century 2-light casement above. The outshut to the right of the stair turret has rendered walls and a lean-to slate roof with a 19th-century 2-light casement on the first floor. The outbuilding to the left has one 2-light casement on the ground floor and a brick chimney shaft over the rear wall.

Internally, the hall contains square-section joists and a chamfered cross beam with bar stops, plus a chamfered beam over the hall/passage partition which is boarded, probably concealing stud work. A solid wall at the higher end of the hall may not rise above first-floor level. The hall features a bench at its higher end which extends into the hall bay and has a boarded back. The lateral hall stack has a chamfered timber lintel and monolithic granite jambs, but no oven. The stair in the turret is constructed of timber and features a newel. The inner room has a fireplace with a replaced timber lintel and a replaced ceiling. Much 19th-century joinery survives, including plank doors. The outbuilding at the lower end has chamfered cross beams and a large fireplace against the passage partition with a heavy timber lintel positioned above floor level, indicating that the floor was inserted later.

Only one roof truss, positioned over the higher end, is visible, and it has straight feet. The roof space was not inspected. The roof over the lower end was replaced around the early 19th century. A small stream flows past the lower end wall of the outbuilding.