Wolfsgrove

This is a large farmhouse, likely originating in the late medieval period, with significant remodeling and extensions in the 17th and 18th centuries, and an early 19th-century wing. The exterior is colourwashed and rendered, reportedly with a stone and cob facade, although some of the cob has been replaced with concrete block following a collapse. It has a thatched roof with a plain ridge, hipped at the left end, and gabled at the end of the wing, featuring a left-end stack, a wide projecting rear lateral stack, and an end stack to the wing.

The house’s layout has evolved over time, now forming an ‘L’ shape with a core range of four rooms deep, possessing an entrance to the left of center leading into an axial passage in front of an unheated service room and a two-room plan front right wing. Initially, the house appears to have been a late medieval open hall (evident by blackened timbers over the left end), which was later reduced to a kitchen. The principal 17th-century room is located to the right of center and continues to function as a parlour. A narrow, unheated room at the extreme right was formerly a dairy, and the partition dividing it from the parlour has been removed. An axial passage in front of the service room is thought to be a late 17th or 18th-century addition, while the front right wing dates back to the early 19th century. Modern, single-story lean-tos with corrugated iron roofs extend to the rear of the main range.

The front facade is long and attractive, with three windows and the wing to the right, where the eaves of the thatch curve slightly above the two leftmost windows. A gabled porch is situated on the front, and a 20th-century conservatory occupies the angle between the main range and wing, providing access to the house via glazed doors. The windows are mostly 2-light casements with glazing bars, largely of 19th or 20th-century origin. A 16-pane sash window, also from the early 19th century, is found on the inner return of the wing.

Inside, the parlour, situated to the right of center, features a 17th-century chamfered axial beam with run-out stops, accompanied by a late 19th-century local marble chimney-piece. The room at the extreme left has a rough crossbeam and a partition wall made of wide horizontal planks separating it from the unheated service room. The roof structure is complex; blackened timbers and thatch are visible over the left end room, but these darkenings cease moving right, revealing two distinct types of trusses. The left-end truss appears to be from the 16th century, incomplete but originally featuring a threaded ridge and purlins with lapped notched collars. A neighboring truss exhibits simpler construction with a halved collar and is also blackened. Remaining trusses (not thoroughly examined) are of a similar type. Trusses in the wing are likely from the early 19th century, pegged at the apex but with bolted collars. The farmhouse is a substantial building, visible from the road.