Higher Cliston

This is a farmhouse, likely built around the late 16th and early to mid-17th centuries. It has rendered cob walls and a gable-ended thatched roof. There are three brick stacks, positioned at each end and centrally within the building. Originally, the house followed a three-room-and-through-passage plan, though its development was more complex than initially apparent. The room to the left of the passage is unusually wide, suggesting it was intended as a high-quality parlour and possibly rebuilt. The detail of the features at the higher end of the house appears later than those in the lower room, suggesting a possible alternate rebuild to that section. A rear projection contains a staircase, likely contemporary with the original construction, although some parts of the walls and the staircase itself have been renewed. The original inner room served as a service room, with the hall functioning as the kitchen. Later, the inner room was divided into two smaller rooms, and a larder was added to the lower room.

The front of the house is asymmetrical, with a four-window facade featuring mainly small-paned 19th-century 1, 2, and 3-light casement windows. The two ground-floor windows on the left have 18th-century square section wooden mullions with leaded panes. A wide 19th-century panelled door is located to the left of the centre. A rectangular stair projection is situated at the rear, to the left of the centre.

Inside, the lower room features a good-framed ceiling with double hollow and roll moulded beams. The fireplace has granite jambs and a chamfered wooden lintel. A chamfered wooden doorframe, with jewel stops and a cranked head, leads into the lower room from the passage, which also has hollow, step-stopped beams. The hall has a framed ceiling of a different design, with spine and cornice beams chamfered with bar and step stops. The hall fireplace has rounded moulding to both the granite jambs and the wooden lintel. Similar chamfered wooden doorframes, with jewel stops, are present at the stairs to the rear and the inner room.

The roof structure includes a visible, pegged jointed cruck over the hall, with threaded purlins, a diagonal ridge, and mortices for a collar. The cruck is clean. An older truss with lapped pegged collar is located over the lower end, while a modern truss covers the higher end. This is a particularly attractive and picturesque house, containing high-quality internal features.