Allison Farmhouse

Allison Farmhouse is a farmhouse that includes a former barn, dating from the mid or late 17th century and refurbished in the mid 19th century. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and has a thatched roof. The building is a long block situated across a gentle hillslope, facing east-northeast. The house is located at the left (south) end and features a two-room plan with a central entrance lobby and stair. The left room serves as the kitchen, which has a projecting gable-end stack, while the parlour to the right has an axial stack that backs onto the stair. The right end of the building includes a workshop and storerooms with bedrooms. Originally, there was a one-room plan cottage at the left end, adjacent to a threshing barn that had full-height opposing central doorways leading onto the threshing floor. The farmhouse was refurbished in the mid 19th century and enlarged by incorporating part of the barn to create the parlour. The remaining section of the barn was later used as a cider house. In the 20th century, the house was further enlarged by converting the former hayloft into bedrooms, while the remaining ground floor space was utilized as a workshop and storage. The building has two storeys and an outshot at the rear of the former kitchen. The exterior features an irregular arrangement of windows, with three in the left section, one in the central section, and two in the right section, all of which are 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The projecting bay fills the barn door in front of the projecting midstrey walls. To the left, there is an almost symmetrical arrangement around the main front doorway, which now contains a part-glazed panelled door behind a 20th-century path with a monopitch roof. The roof is gable-ended, and the outshot to the rear was originally open-fronted. The interior has plain carpentry details, although the roof was not inspected, the bases of straight principals were visible. Allison is a historic settlement, but it appears that the old farmhouse may have been located on a different site.