Great Beere Farmhouse

Great Beere Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from around the early 17th century, with an addition from the mid-18th century. It is constructed of rendered cob and stone rubble walls and has a gable ended thatched roof. There are three chimney stacks: two are brick, one at the left gable end and the other axial and projecting, made of rubble and cob; a third lateral stack is at the rear. The original plan was a four-room layout with a central passage running through, all rooms apparently integral. To the left of the passage is a hall, heated by an axial stack backing onto the passage. Beyond this is a heated inner room that has a gable end fireplace. On the other side of the passage is a room likely used as a kitchen, featuring a large rear lateral fireplace. Adjacent to this is a smaller, unheated service room. Around the middle of the 18th century, a framed staircase was added as a projection at the rear of the hall, with an outshut built behind the inner room. The front elevation is long and asymmetrical, with six windows of 20th-century design – 2-light to the first floor and 3-light to the ground floor, except for the right-hand window which is 2-light. The first floor windows are half-dormers. A 20th-century plank door is at the centre. The rear elevation includes an outshut at the right-hand end, incorporating a gabled stair projection, the gable of which retains its original 18th-century moulded bargeboards. Below is a window, likely contemporary, with four square section wooden mullions into which 19th-century casements have been inserted. A 20th-century lean-to has been added to the left. Internally, the through passage retains a cobbled floor. The kitchen has a very wide fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel featuring hollow step stops, and an oven on the left-hand side. It also has a chamfered ceiling beam. The unheated room on the extreme right also features chamfered ceiling beams with pyramid stops. The hall has a smaller open fireplace with a chamfered wooden lintel, ornamented with jewel and concave stops, and an oven on the right-hand side. There are chamfered cross beams with hollow step stops. Three 18th-century fielded four-panel doors, of an unusual design with two smaller central panels, lead out of the upper end of the hall: one into the inner room, one into the rear outshut and one to the staircase. Three similar doors are located on the first floor. The 18th century dog-leg staircase has a closed string, turned balusters and square newels. The roof trusses are likely from the 18th century, with straight principals, collars slightly set into them, and pegged joints. The original 17th-century four-room plan form of the house remains largely unaltered, although with interesting 18th-century additions. Good quality features from both periods are preserved.