Kerswell Farmhouse

Kerswell Farmhouse is a house that was formerly a farmhouse, dating from the 16th century with alterations made in the 17th century and significant changes in the 20th century. The building features rendered cob and rubble walls and has a corrugated asbestos roof that is gabled at the left end and hipped at the right. There is a projecting rubble lateral stack at the front, which tapers and has a drip course, as well as a projecting rubble stack at the left gable end.

The layout consists of a three-room-and-through-passage plan, with the lower end on the right, which has been substantially altered in the 20th century. It is likely that the hall was originally open to the roof with a central hearth, but aside from the survival of cruck timbers, there is no direct evidence of this. The hall is heated by a front lateral stack, while the inner room is heated by a gable end stack. There is a 17th-century stair projection at the rear of the hall.

The exterior of the farmhouse is two storeys high and features an asymmetrical front with four windows, consisting of two and three light 20th-century casements. There is a 20th-century conservatory in front of the right-hand end, to the right of the stack. The rear elevation includes a rectangular stair projection to the right of centre, with a 20th-century conservatory to its left and an outshut to its right.

Inside, the hall has a large granite-framed fireplace with hollow chamfered jambs and lintel. The axial ceiling beams are chamfered with straight cut stops. The roof structure includes the bottoms of two pairs of cruck trusses visible on the first floor over the hall, which appear to have been cut off above collar level when a new 20th-century roof was installed. There are morticed collars and threaded purlins, and over the lower end, there is a 17th-century truss with straight principals and a collar halved on with a dovetail joint.