(South) Gortleigh Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating from the early 16th century, with alterations in the 17th century and additions in the 19th century. The walls are rendered cob and rubble, with a thatched roof gabled to the left and hipped to the right. There is a brick axial stack, one to the left gable, and one at the end of the rear wing. The original plan is unclear, but it appears to have evolved from a 3-room-and-through-passage layout. However, the room proportions do not easily conform to this pattern. A barn or shippon is located at the right-hand end, separated from the house by a solid wall, with a late 17th or 18th century roof structure. The main house consists of three rooms: a large central hall heated by an axial stack on its right side, and smaller rooms to either side. The right-hand room shares the hall stack and has an inserted fireplace, suggesting a possible passage, hall, and inner room arrangement, although the widths are unusual. The house probably originated as an open hall house with a central hearth and partitions, and was significantly modified in the early 17th century with the insertion of floors and chimney stacks, with a potential rebuilding of the lower end. An additional narrow inner room may also be a 17th-century addition. In the 19th century, a dairy/service wing and an outshut were added to the rear of the left-hand end. The front exterior has a late 19th or early 20th century appearance with small-paned casement windows. The barn to the right has a wide central doorway with slatted windows on either side. The entrance to the house is through a converted outbuilding on the left with a 20th-century plank and part-glazed door. The rear elevation features a 19th-century gabled wing to the right, with an adjoining outshut to the left. An original 1st-floor loading hatch with a wooden frame is visible in the rear barn wall. Inside, the hall has a good 17th-century fireplace with a roll-moulded wooden lintel. The left-hand room shows evidence of a fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel and retains an axial chamfered ceiling beam supported on a curved wooden corbel. A 2-light square section wooden mullion window is located on the first floor above the hall in the rear wall. Above the hall, the original smoke-blackened roof structure remains, consisting of two pairs of sharply elbowed crucks with threaded purlins and diagonal ridge. The rafters and thatch are also preserved, and the hall stack has been inserted into one of the trusses. The barn has a late 17th or 18th-century roof structure with straight principals and lapped and pegged collars.