Bridge Farmhouse

Bridge Farmhouse is an early 17th-century farmhouse with 18th and 19th-century additions, situated in Ashreigny Copy, near Lake. The farmhouse is constructed of rubble and rendered cob walls, with a gable-ended thatched roof, and slate and corrugated iron to the later additions at the right end. There are three brick stacks, one lateral at the rear and one at each gable end, with brick shafts. The original plan was a three-room layout with a through-passage, the lower end being to the left and featuring a two-storey porch in front of the passage. The hall has a rear lateral stack, and the lower and inner room stacks may have been inserted in the 19th century. There’s a probable 18th-century dairy outshut behind the inner room, with a 19th-century outshut adjoining it. Attached to the right end of the house (beyond the inner room) is a 19th-century outbuilding, possibly a wash-house, which adjoins an 18th-century shippon. The exterior has a long, asymmetrical six-window front with 20th-century small-paned 2- and 3-light casements. A 20th-century part-glazed stable-type door is located to the right of centre. A two-storey, hipped-roof porch from the 17th century is on the left of centre, featuring a square-headed doorway with an ovolo-moulded wooden lintel, and an early 20th-century panelled and glazed door behind it. A slate-roofed, one-window 19th-century addition is at the right-hand end with a pentice slate roof supported by a low stone wall with brick piers. The corrugated iron-roofed shippon has a doorway on the front wall and a two-light, square-section wooden mullion window on the end wall. Inside, the passage has plank and muntin screens with ovolo-moulded muntins which have hollow step stops. The lower room has a fireplace with a rough wooden lintel. The hall fireplace features an ovolo-moulded wooden lintel with hollow step stops and a brick oven. The inner room fireplace has a plain wooden lintel. The roof likely has 17th-century trusses consisting of substantial straight principals with purlins resting on their backs. The house preserves an attractive traditional exterior and some good-quality internal carpentry, reflecting its group value.