Lower Easton

Lower Easton is a house, probably originally a farmhouse. It dates from around the mid 17th century, was significantly remodelled and extended in the early 18th century, and received further additions in the 19th century.

The building is constructed of roughly coursed rubble stone with a natural slate roof, hipped to the left end and gabled to the right. Brick chimney stacks stand at each end of the house.

The original plan consisted of two rooms with a cross passage. The passage formerly had a rear doorway. The larger room to the right contained a fireplace in its end wall and functioned as a hall kitchen. The left-hand room also has a fireplace at its far end, though this probably replaced an earlier one that backed onto the passage, now blocked. During the early 18th-century remodelling, the house was refronted, refitted internally, and extended with a small wing behind each end. The left-hand wing probably contained a staircase and may have extended further back. The other rear wing is positioned oddly to the house and its purpose is unclear. It is a very small unheated room but contains a high-quality 18th-century wall cupboard, suggesting a function beyond mere service. It may correspond to a third original room that has since been demolished, though this remains speculative.

The exterior presents two storeys with a symmetrical five-window front. The windows are 20th-century replica 16-pane sashes set flush to the outer face of the wall. A central 20th-century glazed door with a contemporary flat hood stands at the centre. The two ground-floor left-hand windows have stone stringcourses above them. Rear wings project from each end of the house, the right-hand wing being roughly square in plan. A 19th-century lean-to runs between the two wings at the rear.

Internally, the larger right-hand room has three chamfered and convex-stopped cross beams with plain joists and a very wide open fireplace with an oven in the right-hand side and a 20th-century replacement wooden lintel. The small room behind contains an early 18th-century two-panel door and an 18th-century wall cupboard with an arched head featuring a dropped keystone and shaped shelves. The room to the left of the passage has an early 18th-century fielded two-panel door and a partly restored 18th-century moulded plaster cornice encasing a central cross beam. A recess in the wall backing onto the partition, formerly probably a fireplace, was converted in the early 19th century into an alcove. Stone-flagged floors are present throughout. The first floor left-hand room has a simple 18th-century cornice. An inspection of the roof space reveals a 17th-century plaster frieze, somewhat painted over, above the cornice on the axial chimneybreast, which may have been associated with a plaster overmantel above a fireplace in this room. One 17th-century roof truss survives at this end of the house; the remaining roof timbers are 19th century or later. Additional 18th-century two-panel doors survive on the first floor. A simple 19th-century staircase provides access between floors. This house represents an interesting blend of features from different periods, and although its windows are recent replacements, they follow traditional form and give the building an attractive appearance from the road.