Little Court

Little Court

A former farmhouse with late medieval origins, remodelled and extended in the 17th century, with some 18th-century rebuilding. The roof was raised in the 1960s. The building is constructed of colourwashed rendered cob and stone with a tiled roof (thatched until the late 1960s). The roof is gabled at the left end and hipped at the right end, with a gable at the end of the wing. Projecting stone end stacks have rendered shafts, and there is a cob axial stack with a rendered shaft.

The house has an overall L-shaped plan comprising a three-room main block with a through passage facing east, with the lower end to the right and a hall stack backing on to the passage. A front right wing at right angles to the lower (north) end completes the composition. The house originated as a late medieval open hall. A blackened truss survives over the lower end, and the remains of a second truss exist over the hall, interrupted by the inserted hall stack. The third truss over the inner (south) room is 18th-century, and the house may have been rebuilt or extended at the south end. The medieval building was probably floored in the 17th century and may have had a newel stair adjacent to the stack. Both the lower end and inner room stacks appear to be later insertions. The one-room front right wing, probably 17th-century, contains accommodation over a service or semi-agricultural room. The main range has a probably 18th or 19th-century outshut behind the hall and inner room.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window front. A 19th-century plank and stud door with a conical thatched porch canopy stands to the front of the passage, adjacent to the crosswing. Three-light 20th-century timber casements are installed throughout, except the hall window, which is a 20th-century metal-framed casement in an enlarged embrasure. A two-light chamfered mullioned timber window is positioned above the front door. The inner return of the wing has a two-light ground floor 20th-century window to the left, which replaces a former door, a one-light 20th-century ground floor window to the right, and a three-light ovolo-moulded 17th-century mullioned window to the first floor. The outshut has a 19th or 20th-century casement on its inner return with probably earlier external timber stanchions and a plain four-light mullioned rear window, originally unglazed.

Interior features include a lower end plank and muntin screen to the passage with chamfered muntins bearing diagonal stops on the hall side and plain muntins on the lower end side. The doorway in the screen has been moved and the old doorway blocked with horizontal boarding. A section of plank and muntin screen on the hall side displays chamfered diagonal stopped muntins and a good shoulder-headed doorframe. The passage has exposed chamfered joists with run-out stops. The hall contains a chamfered crossbeam with step nick stops and a partly rebuilt open fireplace with a timber lintel bearing masons mitres. The inner room has rough exposed joists and a blocked fireplace. The lower end room has a partly blocked fireplace with a probably 19th-century timber lintel and a replaced crossbeam, with a chamfered square-headed doorframe to the wing.

The roof structure includes a blackened truss over the lower end and a remnant of a second similar truss adjacent to the stack. The principal rafters are crucks of some kind with feet plastered over. The northern truss has a cranked collar mortised into the principals, and the former ridge was diagonally-set and threaded. An X-apex pegged truss exists at the south end. The truss over the wing was not fully accessible at the time of survey in 1987.

A photograph of the building when thatched, showing the former doorway to the wing, is in the possession of the owner.