Little Coombe Farmhouse

Little Coombe Farmhouse is a farmhouse comprising a mid-17th-century remodelling of an earlier house, with early 18th-century alterations and 19th-century additions. The building is constructed of roughcast slate rubble with an asbestos slate roof featuring gable ends. The lower eastern end has a lower roof, and a stairtower on the north front is topped with a hipped roof.

The stonework includes a left (east) gable end stack with weathering and hand-turned clay pot, a truncated axial stack behind the ridge, and a lateral stack to the rear (south) of the lower eastern end.

The plan comprises three rooms and a through passage, originally oriented to face south. The lower eastern end, with a front lateral stack, has probably been rebuilt. The hall features an axial stack at its lower left end backing onto the putative passage, with a wide 2-storey hall bay at the front. A stair tower stands behind the hall, and an inner room or parlour is situated at the higher western end. The mid-17th-century remodelling likely involved the flooring of an open hall and the creation of the wide hall bay. Around the early 18th century, a stair tower with a dog-leg staircase was built behind the hall. Probably in the early 19th century, the lower eastern end was partly rebuilt, likely as a farm building, though the section immediately below the passage was retained as a service room following removal of the passage partition. The outshut at the higher western end is probably a late 19th-century addition. In the 20th century, the house was reoriented, with the north side becoming the front, and a single-storey extension was built on the south of the lower eastern end.

The north elevation presents an asymmetrical 3-window range with a projecting stair tower to the right of centre. This includes an early 18th-century 12-pane sash with thick glazing bars and a similar sash on the first floor to the right. The first floor windows to the left are early 20th-century 2-light casements, and the ground floor right has a late 19th or early 20th-century 2-light casement. The putative through passage doorway to the left, a garden door to its right, and another doorway to the right of the stair tower all have 20th-century glazed doors. At the right end, the outshut also has a 20th-century glazed door. At the left end, the lower roof section features a projecting front wall.

The south elevation is probably the original front. It features a wide projecting hall bay whose gabled first floor was formerly jettied but has been built out further in the late 20th century, creating a deep jetty. The first floor window in the jetty is a 20th-century casement, whilst the ground floor of the hall bay has late 19th or early 20th-century 2 and 3-light casements. To the left on the first floor is an early 18th-century 12-pane sash with thick glazing bars and a 20th-century 2-light casement below. To the right, the lateral stack has been enclosed by a late 20th-century single-storey lean-to extension.

The interior reveals a hall with chamfered cross-beams that continue into the hall bay, with one beam at the opposite end bearing a straight-cut stop buried in wall plaster. The hall fireplace has been blocked and replaced with a new granite lintel. The doorway from the former passage into the hall has a chamfered frame with a replaced lintel. The lower eastern end contains rough cross-beams. The inner room or parlour at the western end has no exposed ceiling beams and features a blocked fireplace.

An early 18th-century dog-leg staircase in the stair tower displays a moulded string, thick balusters, square newels, and a heavy moulded hand rail. The first floor contains some 18th-century 2-panel doors and one fielded 6-panel door.

The main roof features straight principals with halved lapped and pegged collars. The truss over the hall bay displays mortices for threaded purlins and halvings for a notched lapped collar, which are now missing.