Lower Ash Farmhouse

Lower Ash Farmhouse

Farmhouse, dating from circa the mid-17th century with 18th-century alterations and substantially remodelled in circa the early to mid-19th century. An adjacent farm building to the south-east bears a plaque inscribed "R. Leach rebuilt 1839", which probably marks the date of the house's remodelling and farm improvements.

The building is constructed of rendered stone rubble with a slate roof. The roof has a hipped lower left end and a gabled higher right end. There is an axial stack to the left of centre and a gable end stack to the right, both with rendered shafts.

The original mid-17th-century house followed a three-room plan with a through or cross-passage, facing north-east with the lower end to the left (south-east). The hall was heated from an axial stack backing onto the cross-passage, and the large inner room or parlour at the right end had a gable end stack. The house underwent some 18th-century alterations, but the substantial remodelling dates to circa 1839. The lower end was entirely rebuilt and deepened in plan to accommodate a cider-house at the front with a loft above, and at the back a kitchen with a rear lateral stack and a doorway at its lower left end through a large lean-to porch. The new front wall of the lower end was built forward of the original, as was the front wall of the parlour, leaving the centre of the house recessed. Behind the parlour, a one-room wing was added with a straight staircase between, rising from the hall. The wing contains a dairy on the ground floor with a chamber above. There have been virtually no alterations since the 19th century.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical north-east front. The left and right ends project, and the eaves are carried over the recessed centre which is blind. The right projection has three circa early-20th-century two-light casements on the first floor and two circa early-20th-century three-light casements on the ground floor. The projecting lower left end has the cross-passage front doorway recessed to the right, with an early to mid-19th-century flush panel door, the top three panels glazed, and a 19th-century ornate wrought iron gate in front. To the left of the doorway is a flight of stone steps against the front wall leading up to a loft doorway with a 19th-century plank door and slate canopy. Under the steps is a dog-kennel.

The south-west rear elevation is also asymmetrical. To the left is a projecting hipped-roof wing at the back of the higher end. The lower right end also projects at the rear, though less prominently, and has two 19th-century rendered brick chimney shafts over the rear wall. The recessed centre is the back wall of the original house, with a late-19th-century two-light casement on the ground floor and a small window opening above. Other windows at the rear are late-19th or early-20th-century two and three-light casements.

The interior hall contains a cross-beam with cyma and bead moulding and one surviving fluted convex stop, with a chamfered half-beam at the lower end over the fireplace in which a 20th-century fireplace has been inserted. The inner room was not inspected, nor was the room behind in the rear wing, though it is said to have been the dairy with slate slab shelves around the walls. A 19th-century straight staircase rises from the hall between the two rooms. The kitchen at the rear of the lower end has a large 19th-century fireplace. On the first floor there are several circa late-17th-century plank doors with wrought iron hinges and 18th-century two-panel doors. The remaining joinery in the house is circa early 19th century, possibly dating to 1839. The roof over the lower end has 19th-century sawn king-post trusses. The roof space over the higher end was not inspected, but the straight feet of the principal rafters are exposed in the first-floor rooms, and the joints are said to be pegged.