Rapson Court Farmhouse

Rapson Court Farmhouse is a farmhouse, probably dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, with alterations made in the early to mid 19th century and further additions and minor alterations in the mid to late 19th century. It stands on high ground at Roborough, with the land falling away to the left.

The main structure is rendered cob on a stone rubble plinth, though the front and left-hand end walls have been refaced or rebuilt in squared stone rubble, with a cob verge to the gable end. The roof is gable-ended and thatched in wheatstraw, with brick axial stacks. A 19th-century addition of stone rubble with some gault brick dressings has a gable-ended Welsh-slate roof, later covered with 20th-century bitumen. One-storey and loft additions of the late 19th century adjoin to the rear.

The original plan is three rooms with a through passage, arranged to face south. The hall stands to the left with an axial stack backing onto the former through passage. To the right is the former inner room with an integral end stack, and at the left-hand end is the former service room, now the kitchen, also with an integral end stack. The hall was probably formerly open to the roof with a first floor inserted in the 17th century when the stack was likely introduced. The inner and service rooms probably had first floors from the outset, as evidenced by large joists in the inner room, but their end stacks are also likely 17th-century insertions. Partial refacing probably occurred in the 17th century, possibly accompanied by roof rebuilding. The roof-space was inaccessible at survey, preventing confirmation of smoke-blackening. A staircase was inserted in the rear of the through passage in the mid to late 19th century, blocking the passage's rear doorway. A mid to late 19th-century wing projects at right angles to the rear of the hall, incorporating a dairy with a loft above. A late 19th-century range of outbuildings adjoins the rear of the kitchen.

The exterior presents a roughly symmetrical front with four first-floor windows and three ground-floor windows, all late 20th-century two- and three-light wooden casements in older openings with wooden lintels. The right-hand ground-floor window replaces a former doorway. Between the first and second ground-floor windows from the left is a doorway with a 19th-century half-glazed door, wooden frame and lintel. Ground-floor windows have stone cills. A 20th-century bracketed lean-to porch projects from the front. The dairy wing at the rear has a loft doorway with a plank door, wooden frame and stone flat-arched head, approached by external stone steps with slate treads. A former kennel is situated below. Four pigeon nesting holes are set in the wall above the loft doorway. The right-hand side wall has a two-light window with a stone flat-arched head and a plank doorway with brick reveals and brick segmental-arched head to its right. Two small windows are set in the left-hand side wall.

Internally, the hall has a 20th-century ceiling and a 17th-century fireplace altered in the 20th century but retaining an old cloam oven. The former inner room has large joists spanning left to right, a small fireplace with stone jambs and a chamfered wooden lintel (the opening reduced in width at some point), and an old cupboard to the left of the fireplace with two one-panelled doors with shaped H-hinges. The passage features a 17th-century chamfered half beam along the right-hand wall (the rear of the hall stack) and 19th-century matchboarded dado. A 19th-century staircase at the rear of the passage has winders at top and foot, with 19th-century matchboarding to the sides and a landing balustrade with stick balusters. The staircase formerly had a plank door at its foot. The kitchen has a chamfered cross beam and a chamfered half beam at the left-hand end. A 17th-century open fireplace with wooden lintel and plain 19th-century architrave stands in the kitchen. A bench sits to the right of the fireplace, with an old cupboard behind it featuring a plank door and shaped hinges. Old plank doors connect the kitchen to the passage and between the kitchen and the former pump house at the rear. The first floor contains bedrooms to the front and a passage to the rear. The roof-space is inaccessible. The feet of roof trusses with straight principals are visible from the first-floor rooms, as are large purlins spanning over the inner-room end of the house.