Great Hackworthy Farmhouse

This is a farmhouse, likely dating back to the early 17th century or even earlier, with substantial rebuilding occurring around the early 19th century. The walls are whitewashed cob, with slate roofs gabled at the ends. It has a rear courtyard plan, largely enclosed by outbuildings.

The main part of the house consists of three rooms arranged in a line with a passage running through the centre. The hall stack is positioned on the passage, with the remains of a former stair projection featuring a blocked window at the rear of the hall. There’s a narrow, unheated room on the right side and a heated lower end room on the left. The lower end appears to have been largely rebuilt in the early 19th century. A 17th-century kitchen wing extends to the rear of the house, forming an L-shape with the inner room. The remaining sides of the courtyard are filled with outbuildings, including a brick building and a two-story range which incorporates a granary. Part of this two-story range has been converted into living accommodation, and a gateway provides access to the courtyard with a room situated above it. While the datable features of the main range and kitchen wing are from the 17th century, the original fabric of the main range may be even older.

The front of the main range, which is two stories high, is asymmetrical with five windows and a change in roofline to the left of the axial stack. A gabled porch, supported by timber posts, shelters the front door which is centrally positioned and opens into the passage. The left-hand end of the range has early 19th-century windows with 16 panes, alongside a tall, narrow stair window to the right of the front door. The right-hand end features 3- and 4-light casements, with 8 panes per light, except for the ground-floor window illuminating the inner room, which has an early 17th-century timber mullioned window with ovolo molding and iron stanchions. The rear door of the passage, facing the courtyard, retains a good 17th-century timber ovolo-moulded doorway, and an adjacent projection formerly housed a stair. The kitchen wing has an early 17th-century timber mullioned window on the ground floor, facing the courtyard.

Inside, the hall fireplace has a 20th-century grate, said to conceal an earlier lintel and jambs. You can see chamfered cross beams with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. The kitchen wing has a large, partially blocked gable end fireplace with a timber lintel that spans the entire width of the room, alongside chamfered cross beams, exposed joists, and a cream oven now concealed behind a newly inserted stair. A second 19th-century stair has been added in the passage. A room above the hall has a 17th-century door with strap hinges and a small cupboard in the thickness of the wall with butterfly hinges. Access to the roof space was unavailable at the time of survey in 1985. The farmhouse retains a number of early 17th-century features, including the early 17th-century kitchen.