Warmhill Farmhouse

Warmhill Farmhouse is a farmhouse now divided into two separate houses, located at Hennock. The main structure dates from the late 16th or 17th century, though the core of the building may be late medieval. It has been substantially altered and extended over subsequent centuries.

The walls are constructed of solid, roughcast material, and the roofs are concrete-tiled. The house has four chimneystacks of various periods. In the right-hand gable is a projecting stack with a 19th-century rendered shaft on top. At the centre of the ridge stands a granite ashlar stack, which heated the former hall and retains thatch weatherings with a tapered top. At the left-hand end of the ridge, adjacent to the cross-wing, is another large plain granite ashlar stack. On the gabled projection to the right of the front door, at the right-hand corner, is a small rendered stack, probably of 19th-century date.

The plan consists of a three-room arrangement with through-passage, with the parlour positioned at the upper (south) end and the former kitchen at the lower (north) end. A cross-wing abuts the lower end on the north side, projecting both forward and back, and appears to have served a purely service function. In front of the hall is a deep projection dating from the late 16th or 17th century, with a lean-to stair turret, probably of similar date, on its right-hand side. At the rear of the through-passage is a porch with a chamber over, also of late 16th or 17th-century date. On the south-east side of the cross-wing is a single-storey range, possibly of 17th or 18th-century date, with a 20th-century extension to the east. The building is two storeys with single-storey additions.

The front (west) elevation comprises the cross-wing to the left with one window in each storey; a central section two windows wide with a door to the through-passage on the right; a gabled projection to the right with one window in each storey; and a further section to the right including the stair turret, with no windows. The windows are mostly 19th-century wood casements. The cross-wing windows are of three lights with eight panes per light, except for the centre light in the second-storey window, which has two panes. In the central section the left-hand window in each storey is of three lights, the ground-storey window with four panes per light and the second-storey window with eight panes per light. To the right of the ground storey is the original late 16th or 17th-century front door. This is a plank door with moulded and studded ribs forming three rows of four panels each; two are contemporary to the original construction. Wrought-iron strap-hinges with fleurs-de-lis terminals run under the ribs. An old wrought-iron knocker is decorated with a pair of hearts. The door-frame is ovolo-moulded with elaborated scroll-stops, the head enriched with simple dog-tooth carving; the lintel of the doorway is ovolo-moulded with step-stops.

The gabled porch appears to be mostly 20th-century in date. Above it in the second storey is a small single-light wood casement window with two panes. The projection to the right of the door is gabled, containing a small 20th-century window in the ground storey and a late 16th or 17th-century wooden oriel window in the second storey. The oriel has a moulded base carried on three carved brackets. The upper part has ovolo-moulded mullions with three lights at the front and one in each of the canted sides; the glazing is 19th-century, with two panes per light. The left-hand side of the projecting wing has a two-light wood casement in the ground storey with two panes per light; to its left is a 20th-century glazed door. The stair turret has a six-pane sash to the south.

The rear elevation has mostly early or mid-19th-century six-paned wood sash windows. The porch at the rear of the through-passage has an oriel window in the second storey like that at the front; the ground storey has been enclosed in the 20th century, with the posts at the front being replaced by two wooden screws from cider presses. A plank door at the rear of the passage has wrought-iron strap-hinges; the door-frame is ovolo-moulded with raised run-out stops, the head of the frame carved with dog-tooth ornament like that at the front.

Interior features include hall and parlour with ceiling-beams bearing ovolo-mouldings and scroll-stops. Between them is a plank-and-muntin screen with similar mouldings and stops on both sides. Remains of similar screens exist on both sides of the through-passage. Much of the hall side of the passage is occupied by the rear of the hall stack, constructed of granite ashlar with a chamfered plinth and cornice. The door from the hall to the passage (moved from the first floor) is late 16th or 17th-century with three tall moulded panels. On the second storey, the doorway to the room over the east porch and one other doorway have ovolo-moulded door-frames with notched scroll-stops. The doorway at the head of the staircase on the west side also has an ovolo-moulded frame, but with tiny vase-stops. In the corridor is a 17th-century plank door with scratch mouldings on the edges of the panels and wrought-iron butterfly hinges.

At the lower end, now a separate house, the ground-storey room has a gable fireplace with plain granite jambs and a chamfered wood lintel with scroll-stops; at the back is a 19th-century oven with an iron door. The second-storey room above has a wood bolection-moulded chimneypiece with a moulded cornice of circa 1700; a 19th-century cast-iron hob grate is fitted inside. The room retains remains of a moulded plaster cornice, probably also of circa 1700.

The roof of the entire house has been almost entirely rebuilt in the 20th century. One truss, possibly medieval and smoke-blackened, survives with the hall stack built onto it. Its apex is much lower than the present ridge; it has threaded purlins and a ridge-piece with a triangular strengthening-piece at the apex. Another early truss survives at the rear of the projection on the west side.