Little Hackworthy

Little Hackworthy is a house, originally a farmhouse, dating to around the late 15th century, with significant remodelling in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The exterior is rendered cob on stone rubble footings, with a corrugated asbestos roof, half-hipped at the left end and hipped at the right. Two axial stacks are present, one with a brick shaft, and a rear right lateral stack.

The original plan was of an open hall house, possibly with a two-storey room at the left end, though this may have been added later. In the late 16th century, a stack was inserted into the hall, and the hall was floored over, likely in two phases, beginning with the lower end, creating a three-room and through-passage plan. The lower end was later converted to a high-status parlour, and a detached kitchen may have existed at this time. A new roof replaced an earlier medieval roof, and the eaves were raised.

The front elevation is asymmetrical, with a circa 19th-century six-panel front door set within a flat-roofed timber porch, situated to the right of centre. The windows are late 19th/early 20th century timber casements with small panes. The rear elevation is notable for a rare survival of the medieval hall window, now blocked to the interior, featuring four trefoil-headed lights with chamfered diagonal-stopped mullions. The original two-light chamfered timber mullioned window to the lower end also survives, blocked by the rear lateral stack. A chamfered arched doorway to the rear elevation provides access to a wide plank door with spear-head hinges.

The interior retains a comprehensive collection of 16th and 17th century features. The through passage is defined by plank and muntin screens, with the left-hand screen largely removed during the stack's insertion. The hall has a fireplace, largely blocked in the 19th century, with a chamfered lintel. There is a plastered cross beam, and a chamfered stopped doorway to the inner room, set within a solid cob wall. The inner room also features a chamfered cross beam. The lower end has a decorated plaster ceiling in two sections, separated by a plastered cross beam. This plasterwork, with reeded ribs and motifs including a double-headed eagle, is attributed to the same workshop that created the ceiling at Windout Farmhouse nearby, and is repeated in the surrounding cornice with roses. A winder stair leads to the rear, with early 18th-century two-panel doors, a 20th-century grate, and an 18th-century corner cupboard with twelve-paned glazed doors. The room above the parlour has probably 16th-century wide boards. The roof structure includes two heavily smoke-blackened jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars, original battens to the rear of the ridge, and hip crucks at both ends. The roof space over the inner room was inaccessible at the time of the survey in 1985.

Little Hackworthy is a remarkably complete house with high-status work from several periods.