Down Farmhouse

Down Farmhouse dates from around 1500, with possible alterations in the 16th and early 17th centuries, and an addition from the 17th century. The house is constructed of plastered cob and rubble walls, with a thatch roof gabled to the left and rear wing, and hipped to the right. A projecting rendered rubble stack is located at the front, and there is a rendered brick stack at the gable end of the rear wing.

Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan, the lower end of the house on the left has been demolished and rebuilt in the 19th or early 20th century as an outbuilding. The hall was originally open to the roof with a central hearth, although it is unclear to what extent this is still the case due to limited roof access. The plan’s evolution is difficult to discern, but early modernization may have involved the insertion of a jettied chamber over the passage, with a front lateral stack being built at that time. A solid wall separates the hall and the inner room, but these are likely contemporary, with their floors completed in the early 17th century. During the early or mid-17th century, a heated parlour wing was added behind the inner room. A partition in the passage was removed and its rear doorway blocked, probably in the 20th century.

The front of the house presents an asymmetrical 2-window facade. It features 2-light, small-paned casement windows to the right of the projecting stack, which has a squint on its left-hand side. A 19th-century plank and part-glazed door is situated to the left. A wing projects from the right-hand end.

Inside, just inside the front door and to the left, is a blocked original doorway to the lower room, featuring a 2-centred chamfered wooden arch. Sections of a rough wooden screen have been reused to form an entrance lobby, originally separating the hall and passage. The hall fireplace has a chamfered and stopped corbelled wooden lintel resting on a curved wooden corbel. An unchamfered half beam is located at the upper end of the hall, and a similar cross beam towards the lower end, marking a drop in ceiling level which may be a jetty beam. The inner room has chamfered and stopped ceiling beams. The rear wing has an open fireplace with a chamfered and stopped wooden lintel. A foot of a face-pegged jointed cruck is visible on the first floor above the hall. Roof access is limited, but indicates the roof is smoke-blackened.