Scottishill Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Probably early 16th-century origins, with remodelling and extension in the 17th century, possibly in two phases. Whitewashed cob on stone rubble footings, rendered to the front and plastered to the rear, with right gable end wall of stone rubble. The roof is corrugated iron and asbestos, formerly thatched, with half-hipped ends and end stacks plus an axial stack.

The present plan is four rooms wide and single depth. The lower end is to the left, with the centre-left room being the hall heated by the axial stack. The right-hand room is heated by a massive stack running the entire width of the house, and the left-hand room is heated by a stack that may have been inserted in the 19th century. The medieval plan probably comprised an open hall with a through passage of low screens and a low screen dividing the inner room from the hall. In the 17th century the hall was ceiled over and a cob stack inserted backing on to the passage, giving a three-room plan with an unheated inner room and possibly an unheated lower end. The right-hand room, adjoining the inner room, appears to be a 17th-century addition and has been used as a kitchen.

The building is two storeys with an asymmetrical front of three windows plus one further window, the right-hand end slightly set back with a separate entrance to the left. The front door at the right-hand of the three-window block probably marks the front entrance to the former through passage (opposed rear door now blocked). The fenestration consists of 20th-century two-light casements with six panes per light, except for one three-light first-floor window. Bee-boles are present at ground and first-floor level of the front to the right.

Interior 16th- and 17th-century features survive. An oak plank and muntin screen between the hall and inner room has chamfered muntins on the hall side stopped off at former hall bench level. The 17th-century open fireplace to the hall has granite and freestone jambs and a chamfered lintel with step stops. The hall cross beam has a roll moulding and post-dates the screen, which has an additional muntin at the junction. The ground-floor room to the right has one massive chamfered cross beam with step stops; a similar, slightly lower beam about two metres from the end wall is the fireplace lintel to a massive hearth the width of the house. A 19th-century brick bread oven has been inserted in the right-hand end of the fireplace, which may originally have been divided between a hearth and a smoking chamber. On the first floor, the room above the hall has a canted plastered ceiling with some remains of a moulded cornice; a chamfered stopped doorway leads into the room over the inner room. The first-floor partition walls of the three left-hand rooms correspond to the roof trusses, which may be jointed crucks; the truss over the right-hand room appears to be a jointed cruck.

The roof timbers, including battens and some remains of thatch, are heavily smoke-blackened over the left-hand three rooms, that is over the entire length of the original house, with a closed truss at the right-hand end. Straight collars are mortised into the principal rafters, which are mortised at the apex with a threaded ridge and two tiers of purlins. Some of the rafters and the ridge are broken and there has been some additional support from 20th-century timbers. Beyond the closed truss the roof timbers appear not to be smoke-blackened. This is a sympathetically restored house of medieval origins with a fine 17th-century kitchen.