Rendells Including Adjoining Outbuilding To South-West And Courtyard Wall

Rendells including adjoining outbuilding to south-west and courtyard wall

A house, formerly a farmhouse, dating from circa the mid-17th century with later 17th-century and 18th-century additions. The building is constructed of stone rubble walls, partly cob at the rear, with a gable-ended slate roof hipped to the rear wing and a corrugated iron roof to the outbuilding. A brick axial stack is positioned towards the left-hand end, whilst at the right gable stands a 17th-century squared rubble stack with dripstones and dripcourse. A brick stack is situated at the end of the rear wing.

The original plan is not entirely clear but comprises basically two rooms with a through-passage, a parlour to the right and a hall or kitchen to the left. Behind the right-hand room is a very small 17th-century lean-to reputedly used for storing beer. Beyond the left-hand room lies a large dairy, which may not be original but forms part of a wing projecting to the front. The end section of this wing was very probably a malthouse and the whole wing dates from circa the early 18th century. At the rear, overlapping the central room and the dairy, is a circa late 17th-century wing added probably as a kitchen. Behind the passage a projection was built in the 18th century to house a framed staircase.

The exterior is two storeys, formerly three to the malthouse. The front elevation has a regular arrangement of three windows with late 20th-century two-light casements; those on the first floor lack glazing bars and the later 20th-century ground floor windows have flat arches above. A central late 20th-century panelled and part-glazed door is present. The malthouse projects in a wing from the left-hand end with two very low openings just below the eaves and a plank door to the right of centre. To its left is a slight projection on the ground floor, probably for the steeping tank. The rear elevation of the house includes a small 17th-century lean-to to the left, a small hipped stair-wing to its right, and adjoining that a wide wing projects. To the right of it, in the rear wall of the house, is a first-floor circa early 18th-century two-light wooden mullion window of square section. A 19th-century two-light small-paned casement is positioned below. A small courtyard at the front of the house is enclosed by a rubble and cob wall with slate capping and a 19th-century wooden arch in its right-hand end.

The interior preserves significant 17th-century features. The right-hand room has a 17th-century open fireplace with dressed stone jambs and a wooden lintel bearing cyma and ogee moulding, with chamfered and step-stopped cross beams. The room to the left of the passage has a very large open fireplace with a slightly cambered unchamfered wooden lintel, brick oven on the left-hand side and a blocked arch opening to the right. The fireplace jambs are of dressed stone with narrow chamfered edges. The ceiling beams in this room have been encased in lath and plaster. The dairy features slate shelves and original internal shutters to the end window, along with heavy plain cross beams. The rear wing contains roughly chamfered wany cross beams. In the very small room behind the right-hand end, a blocked 17th-century timber window with chamfered mullions is visible. Roughly chamfered ceiling beams are present on the ground floor throughout.

The roof structure retains four 17th-century trusses over the main range, comprising substantial straight principal rafters with morticed apices, straight morticed collars and trenched purlins. Over the rear wing the roof truss has a shallower pitch with collars simply halved on. The malthouse wing also retains original trusses with collars halved and pegged on.

The principal interest of this house lies in its plan and development, featuring an early outshut and attached malthouse. It remains remarkably unaltered since the 18th century with an attractive external appearance enhanced by its courtyard wall.