Ford Farmhouse

Ford Farmhouse is a house that was formerly a farmhouse, likely built in the early 16th century with alterations made in the 17th century and modernized in the late 20th century. The structure features rendered cob and stone rubble walls and has a gable-ended thatch roof. There is a late 19th-century axial rubble stack with brick quoins, as well as a rubble stack with a brick shaft at the right gable end.

The layout consists of a two-room plan with a through passage. The hall is located to the left and has a stack backing onto the passage, with a gable end fireplace in the lower right-hand room. The design of the roof truss indicates that the house was originally built with a hall open to the roof, heated by a central hearth. The hall stack was likely added in the early 17th century, and its very high lintel suggests that the hall remained open when it was installed, predating the ceiling. The date of the ceiling in the lower end is uncertain. A 19th-century lean-to has been added behind the hall.

In the late 20th century, a comprehensive modernization has concealed or removed many early features and altered the layout of the lower end. The exterior is two storeys high with an asymmetrical front featuring three windows, which are later 20th-century two-light small-paned casements. The first-floor windows have small gables above them, and there is a 20th-century plank door to the right of centre, with small 20th-century lean-tos at each end.

Inside, the left-hand room contains a very large open fireplace with a high chamfered wooden lintel that is crudely stopped, and there is an oven on the right side of the fireplace, with a chamfered half beam directly above it. The roof has two apparently full or raised cruck trusses made of heavy scantling; one shows signs of soot encrustation, but lack of access to the roof space during the survey limited a more thorough inspection of the roof construction.