Hole Farmhouse

Hole Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It is constructed of cob on stone rubble footings, with the front rendered and a corrugated iron roof over thatch, with gabled ends. There are three chimneys: a stone stack with a brick shaft on the ridge, heating the hall; a similar stack at the left end, heating the inner room; and a brick chimney at the right gable end. The layout is of three rooms in a single depth, with an off-centre stair hall providing access to the interior. The hall has a stack backing onto the stair hall, and the inner room is heated at the left end. The lower end room may have originally been unheated, with a brick chimney inserted at the right gable end in the 19th century. Single-storey lean-tos extend to the left and right ends, likely contemporary with the main house, while a single-storey dairy under a lean-to roof is probably a 19th-century addition.

The front facade is asymmetrical with three windows, featuring a gabled brick porch of 19th-century origin on the right and a 6-panel front door. Ground floor windows flank the porch, being late 19th or early 20th-century casements with three panes per light. A 20th-century casement, also with three panes per light, sits under a timber lintel, lighting the inner room. First floor windows, high under the eaves, include a 4-light casement on the left (with two six-pane lights); a sliding sash window with two panes per light in the middle; and a late 19th or early 20th-century casement with three panes per light on the right. A large, blocked entrance is visible on the front of the left-hand lean-to, also under a timber lintel. Pigeon holes with flight ledges are located at the rear of the house.

Inside, a staircase rises from a small entrance lobby. An early 18th-century 2-panel door leads into the lower end room on the right. The hall contains a large fireplace with jambs of squared masonry and a replaced lintel. The fireplace in the inner room has a massive cambered, stop-chamfered spine beam with run-out stops, set on jambs of neatly squared masonry. A doorway to the left of the inner room’s fireplace leads into the left-hand lean-to. The lower end room features an early 19th-century china cupboard, likely dating from the insertion of the stack and the room’s conversion to a parlour. The roof structure consists of collar rafter pegged trusses, with some 20th-century replacements.