Farmstone Farmhouse

Farmstone Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the early 17th century, remodelled and extended around the mid-18th century, and restored and extended again in the late 20th century. It is constructed of slate rubble with limestone rubble added during the 20th-century extensions. The roofs are covered in Welsh slate with gabled ends; the roof over the high right-hand end has a lower pitch. Large rendered stone rubble axial stack and stone rubble stacks at either gable end provide heating.

The original plan comprises a 3-room and through-passage arrangement, with the lower end to the left. The hall is heated from an axial stack backing onto the passage, which has a large two-storey porch on the front. The inner room to the right and the chamber above are heated from a gable-end stack. The lower end room was originally the kitchen, with a gabled projection at the back containing a large lateral fireplace with a very large oven, large smoking chamber, and an integral newel staircase; a second oven was inserted later.

Around the mid-18th century the house was remodelled. The lower end was extended, possibly as a parlour, and a parallel two-storey wing containing the kitchen was built at the back of the hall. At this time or soon afterwards, the higher end of the house was relegated to use as a farm building; the eaves were raised, new openings inserted, and an external loft staircase added to the front. A single-storey outshut, possibly the dairy, was added to the rear of the lower-end extension, probably in the 19th century. In the late 20th century the house was extensively restored: the entire roof was replaced, a parallel range was added at the back of the high end in the angle with the kitchen wing, the kitchen wing was extended at the back, the lower-end rear outshut was raised to two storeys, and the higher end of the house was brought back into domestic use. Fine moulded ceiling beams from a house in north Devon were reused in the hall.

Externally the house displays two storeys with a long asymmetrical six-window range. The windows are 20th-century two and three-light casements with glazing bars. 20th-century timber lintels, slate drip moulds, and cills are used throughout. A small gable rises over the front of the lower left-hand end. Stone steps lead up to a first-floor doorway to the right. To the left of centre stands a fine gabled two-storey porch with a chamfered round-arch doorway featuring dressed slate voussoirs; the first floor above projects slightly on a chamfered slate wall plate. Inside the porch are benches made from the roof principals. The inner doorway has an ovolo-moulded timber lintel and a 20th-century door. In the gable of the porch is a lead Sun insurance plaque. The higher right-hand gable end has pigeon holes with slate ledges.

The rear elevation shows a pair of gables to the right; the left-hand gable contains the stack, smoking chamber, oven, and newel stairs, while the right-hand gable was built in the late 20th century over a former lean-to outshut. To the left of the passage doorway, the kitchen wing has a 20th-century gable added to the back and a 20th-century flat-roof porch in the space behind the passage rear doorway. To the left of the kitchen, a 20th-century extension projects beyond the higher end of the house with a parallel gable-ended roof.

Internally, a screen has been removed from the lower side of the passage and replaced by 17th-century panelling from another house. The lower left-end room contains a large kitchen fireplace with a replacement timber lintel. To the right of the fireplace is the entrance to a large smoking chamber; to the left of this is a very large oven, both with corbelled stone roofs (the oven roof was removed when it was converted into a lavatory). A later brick-lined oven has been inserted to the left of the fireplace. To the left of the fireplace is an integral stone newel staircase. The hall has a large axial fireplace backing onto the passage with a chamfered timber lintel with butt stops, a stone rubble jamb to the left, and a monolithic jamb to the right; there is no oven. Reused from a house in north Devon, the hall features intersecting moulded ceiling beams and chamfered joists; some of the joist stops and one of the beams have fern-leaf decoration. The chamber over the inner room has a gable-end fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel with mutilated stops on shaped wooden corbels. The roof was entirely replaced in the late 20th century, but photographs taken during restoration show principals with dovetail lap-jointed collars and threaded purlins, and over the hall a raised cruck truss (part of one blade of which is stored in an outbuilding).

A copy of a page from the Sun Insurance ledger, in the possession of the owner, shows that Nicholas Jackson insured his new house and barns for £200 in 1762. This date probably refers to the mid-18th-century remodelling.