Shortridge Farmhouse And Adjoining Barn

Shortridge Farmhouse and adjoining barn date to the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The farmhouse is constructed of rendered rubble and cob walls, while the barn is of a similar construction. The farmhouse has a half-hipped thatched roof which steps down to a lower level over the gable-ended barn. There are two external stacks on the rear of the farmhouse. The plan is of a two-room cross passage, with a long barn attached to the east and an outshut to the west end. A portion of the barn was partly floored between the 17th and 18th centuries and was incorporated into the house, and is now considered a room within the farmhouse. The right-hand room is higher, suggesting it was possibly the original hall. The farmhouse has two storeys and originally had a three-window front to the south. Around 1980, the eaves on the right side were raised and a further window was inserted. The main doorway is slightly off-centre to the right, with two windows to the left and one to the right. An outshut has a doorway and a small window, and a converted section of the barn has a doorway and a wide window. Most windows are early 20th-century casements and the doors are late 20th-century.

The barn has a doorway centrally along its length. One window retains an old, small, oak shuttered opening, and there’s another large two-light opening with an oak lintel. A two-light window with shutters sits above the door and slightly to the right.

The interior of the original farmhouse features a three-bay smoke blackened roof structure with a pair of jointed crucks rising from ground-floor level, a cambered morticed collar, and wide threaded purlins. A similar jointed cruck structure with original purlins and rafters is present in part of the barn, but lacks smoke blackening. An oak stud partition is visible to the left of the cross passage, extending to the room above and apex of the roof space. Lime wash covers the smoke blackening below collar level in the left roof space. There’s a chamfered and stopped oak axial beam and oak joists originally with a plaster ceiling in the left-hand room. An internal oak winder stair is to the left of a partly blocked fireplace, recessed to the right, with a rounded and tapered chimney breast at the top of the stairs. Two studs near the fireplace have 18 inclined holes with pegs. Original thick end walls have a wide 20th-century opening from the left room to the outshut and a doorway cut into the room converted from the barn at a lower level. This final room has a chamfered cross beam and joist that appear newer than the floors in the rest of the house. The barn has a blocked doorway opposite the large front opening.

Outside, a raised pavement with a rubble wall and low parapet runs along the front of the house. An octagonal crown post, now used as a bird table, is visible in the barn.