Lower Tor Farmhouse

Lower Tor Farmhouse is a farmhouse with origins in the 16th century, significantly altered around 1800 and with 18th-century additions, alongside 20th-century modifications. The farmhouse is constructed of granite rubble and granite dressings, with a painted front, and has a slate and asbestos slate roof, with a tiled rear slope. A ridge stack and a gable end stack are present.

The original layout was a cross passage and three-room plan. The hall was to the left, heated by an axial stack backing onto the passage, and featured a narrow, unheated inner room. The lower end room to the right was heated by a gable end stack. The upper end may have originally extended further to the left, meaning the present hall and inner room were once a single room, with a stair located to the rear of the hall and inner room. Around the late 18th or early 19th century, a stable was added to the left end, forming an L-shape and incorporating the original inner room. This necessitated the removal of the original stair and the insertion of a new stair to the rear of the passage, divided to give separate access to the first-floor rooms. More recent 20th-century alterations include additions to the front and replacement windows.

The two-storey farmhouse has four windows at the first floor, all two-light and single-light 20th-century casements. On the ground floor, there is a single light to the inner room on the left, two windows to the hall – a granite mullion and transom window with chamfered two-centred arched heads to the upper lights and recessed spandrels, with a dripstone, and a 20th-century window to the right. A glazed single-storey lean-to encloses the passage door, with a 20th-century window to the lower end on the right. A single-storey lean-to is attached to the right end with a door and two-light window under one lintel. The single-storey stable attached to the front left has two doors and two ventilation slits and a corrugated iron roof. The left gable end is rendered above the stable roof. A blocked small wooden-framed cusped light, originally located at first floor level between two flues on the right gable end’s former flues, is also present. A straight joint exists between the lower end and the lean-to at the rear, along with a six-pane stair light.

The rear of the hall has a four-pane light at ground floor and a nine-pane light under the eaves. The wall of the end right curves outwards, featuring a small single light at low level with slate weatherings above, formerly a stair projection. The rear of the stable has a window opening at ground floor with a cambered timber lintel. The stacks were rebuilt in the 19th century.

Inside, the passage leads to a rear door to the stair. On the first floor, over the lower end, a 19th-century corbel is visible on the rear wall, along with exposed principal rafters. A solid wall separates the passage from the lower end room to the right, with a step up to the hall. The hall retains one boxed beam and has a 20th-century fireplace. A partition wall was inserted to form a narrow inner room.