Higher Braundsworthy Farmhouse

Higher Braundsworthy Farmhouse is a Grade II* listed farmhouse dating from circa 1500, probably with early 17th-century additions and 19th-century extensions. The building has plastered rubble and cob walls with gable-ended slate and concrete tile roofs. Three rendered chimney stacks are present: two brick stacks at the gable ends and a large rendered axial stack offset from the ridge.

The original plan was likely a two-room-and-passage arrangement with an open hall to the left heated by a central hearth and a solid wall dividing it from the lower room, which may have been two-storey from the outset. The hall stack backs onto the passage, and a large inner room is heated by a gable-end fireplace. The lower room probably had a stack inserted in the 18th or 19th century, with a further room beyond it. The inner room at the left end appears to be a circa early 17th-century addition functioning as a sizeable parlour, and the small wing behind it probably originally contained a stair turret and dates to the mid-17th century, perhaps from when the hall was floored over and its stack inserted. The room beyond the lower room formerly functioned as an outbuilding and was only recently converted. A small 20th-century wing adjoins the rear stair wing.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window front. An early 19th-century 16-pane sash window occupies the 1st floor to the left of centre, with two mid-20th-century casements of 2 and 3-lights to its right. Below is a 20th-century French window to the left, a small-paned light adjoining it to the right, and a three-light mid-20th-century casement beyond. To the right is a late 20th-century tall three-light leaded-pane casement. A 19th-century plank door stands to the right of centre with a chamfered wooden arch surviving above. A lower addition at the right-hand end, formerly an outbuilding, connects to a long late early 19th-century barn projecting in wing form.

The interior is of considerable interest and contains features from several periods with little 20th-century alteration. The inner room features a fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel and unchamfered granite jambs. Three ceiling beams are chamfered with hollow step-stops. The thick wall dividing it from the hall is wainscotted with 17th-century panelling. The hall is relatively small with ovolo-moulded ceiling beams and plain joists. A heavy wooden lintel survives above the blocked fireplace. An 18th-century wall cupboard with fielded two-panel doors is present. A 17th-century ovolo-moulded doorframe leads from the passage to the hall, and a similarly-moulded lintel survives over the former back doorway. The doorframe to the lower room has chamfered and stepped jambs and lintel. On the 1st floor is another 17th-century chamfered doorframe. In the rear wing is a late 17th-century two-panel door fielded with bolection moulding around the edges. One of the main 1st floor rooms incorporates a large 13th-century cupboard partly built into one wall.

The roof structure preserves original trusses over the main range. At the lower end is a raised cruck with morticed cranked collar, threaded purlins, and a diagonal ridge with triangular strengthening block below. This truss is lightly smoke-blackened. A solid wall divides this section from the hall, which is smoke-blackened on the hall side. The hall contains two trusses of very large scantling that are heavily smoke-blackened. The lower side section, cut off by the hall stack, features a raised cruck; the central one is a face-pegged jointed cruck of similar construction to the lower end truss but with the ridge removed. A few original rafters survive. The wall at the higher end is smoke-blackened on the hall side and clean on the other. Over the inner room is a cruck with a sharply angled elbow, of lighter scantling than that over the hall and not smoke-blackened.

This late medieval house provides clear evidence of its original plan and pattern of development, preserving good-quality features from several periods with remarkably little modern alteration.