Lower Hewton

Lower Hewton is a house that began as a farmhouse around 1500, with alterations and extensions made in the 17th century, possibly further extended in the 18th and 19th centuries. The building is rendered in cob and stone rubble with a gable-ended concrete tile roof and three stone rubble stacks, plus later 20th-century brick shafts.

The original plan was probably a two-room hall-and-passage arrangement with the hall to the right, open to the roof and heated by a central hearth. The hall appears not to have been ceiled until the mid-17th century, based on the form of the beams and a 17th-century spoon found in the hall ceiling; a date of 1658 in first-floor plasterwork may relate to when the house was floored. Newel stairs were added in a projection at the front of the hall when the floor was inserted, integrating a porch. The lower room's fireplace and ceiling beam suggest a mid-17th-century date. In the mid-to-late 17th century, the house was extended at the lower end by one room, probably originally unheated for service purposes, which is noticeably deeper than the original structure; a fireplace was added to it in the 18th century. An outbuilding at the higher end of the hall is likely also 18th century. Outshuts were added at the rear in the 19th century.

The building is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front. The right-hand end is an outbuilding, and the integral porch and stair turret project right of centre. The two left-hand first-floor windows and the porch window are late 19th-century two-light casements with glazing bars; other windows are earlier 19th-century small-paned three-light casements. The porch is open-fronted with a 19th-century panelled door behind, set under a lean-to roof. A 19th-century plank door sits left of centre, leading to the lower addition. A straight joint is visible between the house and the right-end outbuilding. The outbuilding has a left doorway with a loading hatch above and a slit opening to its right.

Inside, the original roof survives over two bays of the hall and passage, blackened by smoke. The hall truss has probably raised crucks with an unchamfered arch-braced morticed cranked collar, butt purlins and morticed apex with threaded diagonal ridge. A wide bay at the higher end has a cambered strengthening collar with bird's-mouth joints to the purlins; original common rafters also survive. The passage roof was replaced in the 18th century, but a scarf joint to the original ridge shows the original continued. The hall fireplace has a high chamfered wooden lintel with worn stops, roughly chamfered granite jambs, and an oven on the right side. The hall ceiling has three chamfered cross beams with wide bar and hollow stops. The doorway to the stairs is unusual, with shouldered form and shoulders set well down from the door-head. The wooden newel stairs probably have renewed treads. At the hall's higher end is an 18th-century cupboard with moulded door, surround and H-hinges. The lower room has an unusual beam and fireplace arrangement with two ovens, the right side filled in to incorporate one. At the head of the newel stairs, the chamber over the hall retains a 17th-century chamfered wooden door-frame with mason's mitres. The chamber over the lower room has a small fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel, above which appear the date 1653 and initials I.A. in high-relief plasterwork. In the lower extension, the fireplace has a plain 18th-century wooden lintel, though a chamfered and stopped window lintel suggests the room pre-dates the fireplace. Several rooms retain their original limewash. The passage and hall floors are of lime-ash, and first-floor old wide floorboards survive. The house remains very unaltered internally and externally since the 19th century and retains a variety of interesting features from different periods.