Lower Brownsham Farmhouse

Lower Brownsham Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating to the late 16th or early 17th century, with extensions in the 18th century and a refronting in the early 19th century. Later 20th-century internal alterations have occurred. The building is constructed of rendered stone rubble with a gable-ended slate roof. There are two brick stacks: one at the right gable end, a rear lateral rubble stack with a brick shaft, and a gable-end brick stack to the rear wing.

The original plan was likely a 3-room-and-through-passage layout. A long lower room was originally heated by an end stack, with a hall to the right of the passage, featuring a fireplace on the rear wall, and a small inner room with a separate end stack. In the 18th century, an extension was added beyond the lower room, creating a dairy and salting room. A stair projection, possibly from the late 17th or 18th century, was built behind the inner room, adjoining the hall stack. A small 19th-century service wing was added behind the passage and lower room. In the 20th century, the rear passage leading from the cross-passage to the stairs was removed, blocking the hall fireplace. The partition between the hall and inner room was also removed to create a single room.

The front elevation has an asymmetrical 5-window arrangement, predominantly with early 19th-century 16-pane hornless sashes, with three paired 16-pane sashes – one on the ground floor to the left of the centre, and two on the first floor, the left-hand one being a later replica. A blocked window opening is on the left of the first floor. A 20th-century panelled door is located to the right of the centre, sheltered by a shallow gabled slate doorhood. The rear elevation includes a single-storey wing projecting to the right of the centre, and a 2-storey lean-to containing the staircase.

Inside, the room to the left of the passage retains a section of 17th-century panelling above a bench, featuring sunken moulded panels with carpenters mitres and a moulded cornice. The room features chamfered spine beams with run-out stops. A wide open fireplace has plain wooden lintels and an oven at the rear. The dairy has slate shelves and incorporates a rough cross beam with round mortices. Large granite salting troughs are located to the rear of the dairy. The right-hand end room has 19th-century dado panelling and panelled shutters.

The earliest surviving roof truss, above the passage, has curved feet, a morticed apex and collar, and trenched purlins, but is not smoke-blackened. Later roof trusses are 18th or 19th century with simply crossed apices and lapped collars. A cob garden wall with slate capping adjoins the north-west corner of the house and extends to a barn to the north-east. The farmhouse has an interesting plan and retains an attractive facade, and forms part of an unspoiled and picturesque hamlet.