Appleacre Including Adjoining Cob Wall To South-West

This is a 16th-century house, likely originally a farmhouse, with alterations in the 17th century and modernization in the 20th. It was reputedly once divided into three cottages. The house is constructed of rendered cob walls and has a thatched roof, which is half-hipped at the left end and gabled to the right. A brick chimney shaft is located at the rear of the left end, and a gable brick stack stands at the right end.

The original layout comprised three rooms and a through/cross passage, initially open to the roof with a central hearth over the room to the right and hall. It was probably ceiled in the early 17th century, with a lateral stack added to the rear of the hall and a gable stack to the lower room. A newel staircase was added to the rear of the hall, adjoining the fireplace. Subsequent alterations have changed the layout, with the stairs now opening from the passage, and revisions to the size of the hall and an inner room.

The two-storey front has an asymmetrical appearance with a four-window facade and six windows on the ground floor. The ground floor windows are 1 and 2-light casements with leaded panes in small openings. A first-floor window towards the right incorporates 18th-century leaded glass, and the first-floor windows are set back within the thickness of the wall. A 20th-century plank door is centrally positioned.

At the rear, a central projection incorporates a lateral stack to the right, with a rounded oven projection beyond, both with thatched roofs. To the left of the stack is a rectangular stair projection with a 2-light wood mullioned window, its interior edges chamfered. A similar 2-light wood mullioned window is located to the left of the stair projection on the first floor.

Inside, the hall fireplace features a chamfered wooden lintel with straight-cut stops, and a ship has been roughly carved on the lintel’s front. Two crossbeams, one now in the passage, are chamfered with hollow step stops. A wooden newel staircase is also present. The roof trusses are straight principals with lapped and pegged collars, likely dating to the late 18th or early 19th century. Smoke-blackening on the ridge at the right-hand end of the roof suggests an original open roof structure for this part of the house.

A cob wall with a thatched roof adjoins the south-west end of the house, extending to the linhay. Despite limited early internal features, the house retains an attractive traditional exterior and two early windows.