Hayne Farmhouse and Garden Walls and Railings to the South

Hayne Farmhouse is a building dating to circa the late 17th century, with substantial additions and alterations of 1837. It is located in Hollacombe, alongside stone garden walls with iron railings to the south.

The 1837 range is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring a slate roof with deep eaves and gabled ends. Brick chimney shafts are present at the ends. An earlier building, adjoined to the left, is built of whitewashed rendered cob with a lower slate roof hipped at the left end and an axial stack. Later alterations have obscured the original plan of the 17th-century house, which was probably adapted as service rooms when the 1837 range was built, incorporating a fireplace and walling from the right-hand end of the earlier house. The 1837 plan consists of two rooms wide and one-and-a-half rooms deep, with a wide central passage leading to a full-height rear stair hall. A rear right turret, with a hipped slate roof, is a mid-19th century addition, likely for use as a washroom or lavatory.

The symmetrical front of the main range has three bays. A central, flat-roofed stone porch with ashlar stone piers and a timber cornice features a 6-panel door with a panelled soffit and a rectangular fanlight with hexagonal glazing bars. The fenestration is largely contemporary 16-pane sashes, with a tripartite sash located on the ground floor left; the central light has 18 panes over 24, and the flanking lights have 3 panes over 4.

Inside the main range, a grand central stair hall is present, featuring a fine open-well rear stair with a landing, stick balusters, and a ramped handrail wreathed round a barley-sugar iron post with a finial. Contemporary joinery is found throughout, including doors with panelled soffits. A decorated plaster wall frieze is in the ground floor room to the rear right. The ground floor room to the front left has a stone floor, and renovations uncovered a late 17th-century fireplace, the original 1837 timber chimney piece of which is now in the possession of the owners. Access to the turret is only from the stair landing; a drain from the turret’s ground floor leads to the rear of the house. C19 king post and strut roof trusses are found in the main range, while the earlier range has roof trusses dating to circa the late 19th or early 20th century.

A low stone wall with iron railings and a gate extends in front of the house and ramps up to the right return. The 1837 range is considered to be of high quality for its type in the region. An unusual element is that the window of the principal room in an otherwise symmetrical front appears to retain the earlier distinction between the hall and the rest of the house.