Lyneham Farmhouse

Lyneham Farmhouse is a house, formerly a farmhouse, dating from the late 16th or early 17th century, with later additions. It is constructed of cob and stone, covered with roughcast, and has slated roofs with the left-hand section hipped on the right. Chimney stacks of 19th or 20th century date stand on each gable, the left-hand stack being of exposed yellow brick. A large projecting chimney stack of late 16th or early 17th century date projects from the centre of the rear wall.

The building is fundamentally planned as a three-room and cross-passage house with an extra room at the lower end, but it has evolved considerably or been drastically altered over several periods, with three distinct phases of building visible. The earliest part, probably the former hall, occupies the centre. A passage of 19th century date was inserted at its left-hand end, leading to an inserted stair at the rear. To the left, separated by a very thick wall, is a further room, probably a 17th century parlour addition. This room is shallower than the hall and has a rounded stair turret at its rear left-hand corner, with the stair now removed. At the right-hand end, where the front wall is set back from the remainder of the building, is a second cross-passage with two rooms to its right. The passage retains some evidence of 16th or 17th century building, but the rest of this section appears to be 19th century. The structure is of two storeys.

The front elevation has four windows. The left-hand section (hall and parlour) has two windows widely spaced. Most windows are 20th century metal or plastic replacements. The second ground-storey window from the left is a 19th century three-light wood casement with six panes per light, many of which contain old glass. The right-hand second-storey window is a 19th century two-light wood casement with two panes per light. Between the two left-hand windows is an early 19th century doorway with a bead-moulded door-frame. The door is possibly an old plank door with added ribs and an inserted window. Above is a pent-roofed hood on shaped wooden brackets. On the right, at the left-hand end of the set-back section, is another doorway with a 19th century lean-to porch of solid roughcast walls. The front wall of the porch contains a two-light wood casement window with two panes per light. The left gable of the house has a 16th or 17th century slit window in the upper storey of the stair turret, with a thick wood frame and sharply cranked head.

The former hall contains a large fireplace in its rear wall with splayed jambs and a wooden lintel that is chamfered with step-stops. Behind it is a blocked oven with a rounded red-brick arch and a shallowly projecting stone shelf. A chamfered upper-floor beam features run-out stops. The room above the hall has a blocked fireplace, now partly exposed on the stair landing, with an ovolo-moulded wood lintel featuring raised run-out stops. The former parlour has a tall gable-fireplace with rough monolithic granite jambs. Its ovolo-moulded wood lintel, probably re-set, has raised run-out stops and a deep groove apparently original to it above the moulding. In the partition between the cross-passage at the lower end and the room to its right is part of an old chamfered beam above; an early partition may be concealed under boarding. The roof structure was rebuilt in the 19th century.

The farm formerly belonged to Torre Abbey.