Great Matridge Farmhouse

House. This farmhouse has late medieval origins, with significant remodelling in the late 16th century and a rear wing added in the 19th century. The walls are colourwashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings. The roof is of red tiles, replacing a former thatched covering, with gables at each end. It has an axial stack with an ashlar granite shaft and cap, a projecting right-end stack, and a brick gable end stack to the 19th-century rear wing. The layout is of three rooms, a through passage, a 19th-century kitchen wing to the rear left, creating an L-shaped plan, and a single-storey lean-to addition to the rear right at the lower end. Although the roof timbers were replaced after a fire in the 1920s, evidence suggests the original layout was a medieval open hall house, floored over in two phases, initially with the unheated inner room jetting into the hall. Later, a stack was inserted backing onto the through passage, and the hall was floored over. The lower end may have originally been unheated, with the stack possibly added in the 18th century. A 19th-century kitchen wing was then added to the rear. The roof pitch was adapted in the 1920s to accommodate tiles. It is two storeys high, with an irregular five-window front and two raking dormers projecting above the eaves. The front door, in a slated porch with bracket supports, is centrally positioned to the right. To the left of the porch is a projecting semi-circular bread oven capped with a single slate. The windows are 2-light casements with three panes per light; the ground floor window to the left is blocked. Inside, there is considerable survival of late 16th-century features and a rare, well-preserved hall window at the rear, dating to the late 15th century. This blocked window has a timber frame with four trefoil-headed lights, diagonal stops to the mullions, and extends to the level of the first floor. Late 16th-century features include a fine timber round-headed doorway with chamfering on the outer face. The chimney breast of the hall stack is of granite ashlar on the passage side. The hall fireplace has a chamfered lintel with diagonal stops and stone rubble jambs. A jetty beam sits above the plank and muntin screen between the hall and inner room, with chamfered muntins and diagonal stops at the former hall bench level. The subdivided inner room has a chamfered cross beam with step stops. Disturbance to the rear wall of the hall may indicate the original position of a stair. The lower end room has an open fireplace with a plain timber lintel. The house is a good example, notable for the rare survival of the earlier blocked hall window.