Old South Heale Farmhouse

Old South Heale Farmhouse is a farmhouse, dating from the early 18th century, and likely enlarged and remodelled in the late 18th or early 19th century. Minor alterations and additions occurred in the late 19th and late 20th centuries. The farmhouse is built with a cob structure rendered over, and has gable-ended slate roofs, with larger slates on the right-hand portion. Brick top sections feature on the end stacks. The original layout was an early 18th-century two-room, central-entrance plan with external end stacks facing west. An early 19th-century addition was made to the right, comprising a principal room with an integral end stack and a smaller room to the left, with a front entrance. The earlier 18th-century block was likely remodelled at the same time. A late 19th-century lean-to outshut extends from the left-hand gable end, and a late 20th-century flat-roofed addition is at the rear of the right-hand end.

The left-hand block presents a symmetrical three-bay facade. It includes a late 19th-century two-light, small-paned wooden casement on the first floor to the right, a probable 20th-century 12-pane glazing bar sash to the ground floor at the left, and a central doorway with a late 20th-century two-leaf boarded door and a pegged and beaded wooden frame. A probably 19th-century gabled porch with side benches is also present. The right-hand block incorporates two first-floor two-light, small-paned wooden casements (the left-hand one dating to the 19th century and the right-hand one a late 20th-century replacement), and a ground-floor 12-pane glazing bar sash (likely 20th century). A doorway to the left has a 19th-century six-panelled door with a pegged and beaded wooden frame and a three-part rectangular overlight, accompanied by a gabled porch with side benches.

Inside, the right-hand ground-floor room of the left-hand (early 18th-century) block features a large open fireplace with splayed stone jambs and a chamfered wooden lintel with stepped stops, inscribed "IFM" and "1703," alongside a spit rack and a bench along the front wall, and an old cream hob in the rear wall. The ground-floor room in the right-hand (circa 1800) block includes a moulded plaster cornice and a late 18th or early 19th-century four-panelled door with a pegged and beaded frame. The fireplace has a chimney-piece with Ionic columns, possibly featuring a late 17th-century pedimented doorcase. Old South Heale Farmhouse forms part of a small farmstead group which includes a barn with an attached farmyard wall.