Pitt Farmhouse

Pitt Farmhouse

A farmhouse of late 16th-century or early 17th-century origin, with alterations dating to the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and renovations carried out in the 1930s.

The exterior is constructed of whitewashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings, with a wooden shingle roof (formerly thatched) and gabled ends. End stacks are present, along with a projecting rear lateral stack. The building is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front. There is an open porch to the left of centre, supported on cast iron columns, with a porch room above. Three gabled dormers project from the right side. The porch room features a pretty 17th-century oriel window on moulded brackets with a casement window of small leaded panes. A wide timber front door is centrally placed. The first floor has 3 and 4-light casements with square leaded panes, some repaired but probably 17th or early 18th-century in origin. The ground floor has three windows: two 3-light 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars flanking the porch, and a 4-light window to the right with square leaded panes, probably 17th or early 18th-century. The rear elevation has a rear right brick lean-to with tiled roof and a small outshut at the rear of the cross passage.

The original plan appears to have been a three-room arrangement with through passage, comprising a parlour at the lower (left) end, a hall heated by the rear lateral stack with a newel stair adjacent to the stack, and a kitchen at the right end. The plan was modified, probably in the late 17th or early 18th century, with a small outshut added to the rear of the passage and a small service room created from the hall between the hall and kitchen. An axial passage against the front wall links the hall and kitchen in front of the service room. The roof was probably raised at this period, and an axial passage on the first floor was created after 1723. A service stair rising in the kitchen adjacent to the service room is probably an early 19th-century addition.

The interior is very unspoiled. The central room (the hall) has a chamfered step-stopped crossbeam and a pretty early 19th-century Gothick chimney-piece with quatrefoil decoration. The left-hand room has a moulded cornice, which continues on either side of a plastered-over crossbeam. Armorial bearings in plaster are located over the chimney-piece, with the initials I A and the date 1723. A timber newel stair adjacent to the stack features a pretty, probably 17th-century two-light stair window with leaded panes. The first floor retains plaster armorial bearings with the initials R A and the date 1723 on the rear wall, presumably pre-dating the insertion of the axial passage.

The roof construction is of particular interest. At the right end of the house, the remains of two late 16th or early 17th-century jointed cruck trusses survive, and the whole roof may originally have been of this design. Only the feet of the crucks remain, with new principal rafters of late 17th or early 18th-century character with lap dovetailed collars pegged on to the cruck feet, presumably to provide extra height. The first floor ceilings have been raised, partly blocking 17th-century timber mullioned windows in the attic, but the attic must have been used for accommodation or storage after the ceiling was raised as it retains part of a substantial floor.

The house was home to the Attwill family in the early 18th century, who also lived at Mowlish and Newhouse. This is a very unspoiled traditional farmhouse.