Penson Farmhouse

Farmhouse in North Huish, near Diptford. Originally built in the 17th century with probable additions from the 18th and 19th centuries. Constructed from local slate rubble with a slate roof. The roof has a hipped end on the left side and a gabled end on the right. A large stone rubble chimney stack sits at the right-hand gable end, and a large rendered axial stack stands near the left-hand end.

The original plan appears to be a two-room arrangement with a through or cross passage, both rooms heated from gable-end axial stables. The smaller left-hand room served as the parlour, while the large right-hand room functioned as the hall and kitchen, with what appears to be an integral one-storey plus attic outshut at the right-hand end. Behind the parlour is a stair tower, probably containing a framed staircase. At the left-hand end sits an integral outbuilding with external stairs at the front providing access to the loft above. The front porch is probably an 18th-century addition. A two-storey unheated wing extends behind the right-hand room and passage, possibly dating from the 18th century, with a 19th-century single-storey outshut in the angle to the right. The gap between the wing and stair tower was probably infilled in the 19th century. A conservatory was added to the back of the outbuilding on the left in the 20th century. If the outbuilding at the left-hand end and the outshut at the right-hand end are integral rather than additions, this represents a most interesting 17th-century plan, though they may instead be later additions to a more conventional two-room arrangement.

The building is two storeys with an irregular three-window range plus a doorway in the outbuilding to the left and a small window in the lean-to on the right. The three-window house part has 19th-century three-light casements on the first floor and a similar window on the ground floor left, fitted in a partly blocked larger opening with a slate hood mould. The ground floor left-hand window is a 19th-century 16-pane sash. Slate window cills and wooden lintels are present, along with a projecting plinth. The integral lean-to on the right has a very small attic window. An open-fronted probably 18th-century lean-to porch leads to the doorway left of centre, with old wooden benches inside and a 20th-century glazed plank door. The integral outbuilding on the left has external steps leading up to the first-floor doorway, which has a late 19th-century plank door.

The rear elevation shows a stair turret to the right of the house part and a partly rendered projecting wing to the left, with a lean-to outshut in the angle to the left and an unfilled space between the wing and stair turret to the right. A 20th-century glazed conservatory sits behind the outbuilding at the far right end.

The interior was not accessible at the time of survey, but panelled internal window shutters were observed. There may be other interior features of interest, including the roof structure.