East Worth Farmhouse

East Worth Farmhouse

A former farmhouse, now a private house, with origins possibly dating to the 17th century but substantially altered in the twentieth century. The building is constructed of rendered cob on rubble stone footings and plinth, with a slate roof (formerly thatched). The chimneys include a rubble stack backing onto the cross passage and two further external eaves stacks raised in stone at the south end.

The plan follows a longhouse derivative form, comprising two heated rooms and a byre beyond a cross passage. A cob partition between the cross passage and byre was added later and raised to gable height in concrete block in the twentieth century. Originally entered from the rear (east) side, access is now from the west. A late twentieth-century wing has been added to the right (south) end. Low outbuildings remain attached to the south-east corner.

The exterior presents two storeys with scattered fenestration, mainly comprising small-pane late twentieth-century wood casements and plank doors. The new wing features a half-hipped end with casements at each level, a narrow stair light, and a recessed corner doorway. The lower byre has a hipped outer end with a passage door and pair of plank doors to the centre. At the gable to the passage stands a rubble stack with projecting weathering stones from the former thatch. The south front displays small casements and two external stacks. The east front, formerly the main entry, features a twentieth-century gabled half-dormer above a pair of glazed doors. The byre has a small eaves light and loading door above a plank passage door and two further doors, with a small casement to the right. At the south end, a low gabled barn range has four pigeon holes at the eaves and a loading door above a plank door entry, though early photographs show a range that once extended further.

The interior contains significant original features. The central room, formerly the kitchen, has a deep fire recess with a chamfered and stopped bressumer on stone cheeks and a cloam oven to the right, fitted with a nineteenth-century cast-iron door. To the left of the fire is a plank door to the passage. Opposite the fire is a deep square recess with a carved surround of seventeenth or eighteenth-century date, formerly containing a door. Set high to its left is an eighteenth-century cupboard recess with shelf. The smaller outer room contains a central heavy chamfered beam. All ground floor walls in the original range are heavily battered within. The new wing contains a late twentieth-century staircase with no early detail and twentieth-century roof structure, though a pair of former cruck arms with a trench for the purlin has been built into the central bedroom. The cross passage retains a cobbled floor with a later cob wall to the left. The byre retains most of its original cobbled flooring, including a central drainage channel with its outlet now blocked at the north end. Part of the floor was later covered with a concrete slab, which was carefully removed at the time of inspection. The loft floor is supported on three heavy rough-chamfered and stopped beams. The roof structure dates to the nineteenth century and was probably lowered when the building was converted to slate. The gabled outbuilding contains eighteenth or nineteenth-century roof structure but retains no other notable detail.

Despite substantial twentieth-century modifications, the house retains sufficient original structure and clear indications of its origins as a longhouse-type building.