West Court And Attached Barn To West Court

This is a house, formerly a farmhouse, with origins in the 16th century, significantly remodelled in the early to mid-17th century, extended in the 18th and 19th centuries, and altered in the 20th century. The building is constructed of slatestone rubble walls, rendered at the front, with some cob to the barn. It has a gable ended slate roof and a hipped roof to the barn. There are rendered rubble axial stacks with tapering caps and brick shafts, a similar stack at the rear gable end, and a brick lateral stack at the rear.

The building’s plan reflects a complex development, the original layout remaining unclear. A 16th-century window in the barn, which runs at right angles to the main house, suggests a possible early structure there, although there is no other supporting evidence such as a fireplace. The house then extends to the right, with one room in line with the barn’s end, followed by a projecting range that was likely two rooms, originally with a fireplace at the left-hand end. A subsequent 20th-century staircase and entrance hall were inserted, and the room beyond incorporated into an 18th-century rear parlour wing. A probable 19th-century unheated wing projects from the right-hand end of the front facade. A 19th-century dairy was added behind the centre of the house.

The exterior presents an asymmetrical L-shaped facade, with the barn at the left-hand end projecting at right angles to the rear. The front has five windows, including a late 20th-century projecting wing. A 20th-century lean-to porch with a P.V.C. glazed door sits centrally. The left-hand end of the house is recessed and contains a partly open-fronted porch with a 19th-century plank door. The barn has a small window on its front wall, a doorway in its left-hand wall, and a small 2-light wooden mullion window with cambered heads to its narrow lights.

Inside, the kitchen at the left-hand end features substantial roughly chamfered ceiling beams. A 20th-century fireplace has been built into an existing stack. The central room retains its earlier fireplace, partially rebuilt with a renewed lintel, and retains an oven on the left-hand side. It also exhibits roughly chamfered ceiling beams. The right-hand end room and the wing behind it were combined in the 20th century. The front section and adjoining stairhall have chamfered and stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The rear fireplace has a curved back and a low slate slab lintel. The left-hand part of the house retains its 17th-century roof trusses, consisting of substantial straight principals with morticed apex, threaded purlins, and collars lapped and pegged. The barn lacks early features internally.