Slade Farmhouse

Slade Farmhouse is a 15th-century farmhouse with 17th and 19th-century alterations and additions. The walls are rendered cob and rubble, though part of the front wall was rebuilt in brick in the 20th century. The roof is gable-ended with corrugated asbestos sheeting. A projecting front lateral stack of rubble with granite ashlar quoins and a tapering cap with moulded dripcourse is a prominent feature, with a brick shaft at the right gable end on a stone base and another brick shaft to an outshut at the rear.

Originally the house followed a three-room and through-passage plan, though the lower end to the left has since been demolished. The building almost certainly originated with an open hall containing a central hearth, evidenced by the survival of early timbers, though the roof space is not currently accessible. The inner room was almost certainly floored from the start and reached by a newel stair rising at the back of the hall towards the higher end. The lower end may also have been open to the roof. During the 16th century, an intermediate stage may have seen the insertion of a lateral fireplace into the hall while it remained open to the roof, and the inner room may have been upgraded to a heated parlour. In the early 17th century, the hall was floored and a two-storey porch was added to the front of the passage. In the 19th century, a rear outshut was added which destroyed the original stair projection, the hall was reduced in size by a partition inserted just below the fireplace, and a new staircase was added. The date of the demolition of the lower end is uncertain.

The exterior displays two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window front of mid to late 20th-century metal frame three-light casements. A gabled two-storey 17th-century porch stands at the left-hand end with a two-light early 20th-century casement, and a lean-to glazed porch has been built in front of it. An outshut extends along the right-hand end of the rear wall.

The interior preserves significant medieval and early post-medieval features. At the front of the passage is an original granite four-centred arched doorway with rich moulding. On the higher side of the passage, part of a plank and muntin screen survives with chamfered muntins and high hollow step stops; above it is a beam which is richly moulded where complete at the front. A chamfered half-beam to the lower side of the passage features ogee stops. A blocked original single-light wooden window with a trefoiled head is visible on the first landing above the inserted stairs.

The hall contains a large granite-framed fireplace with a high lintel and hollow-chamfered jambs. High up on the wall to the left of the fireplace is a moulded piece of stone possibly intended to hold a candle. At the rear of the hall toward its higher end is the original doorway to the stairs, which has an unusual wooden frame with a four-centred bead. Its chamfer is decorated all the way around with high-relief carved flower heads and two more obscure motifs which may be initials. A 17th-century plank door hangs here. Two heavy cross-beams survive with chamfered detailing and notched stops.

The inner room preserves half of a high-quality framed ceiling featuring richly moulded spine and cornice beams. It also contains a blocked granite-framed fireplace. In the loft space above the rear outshut, another original window has been reused in the end wall, though now blocked; it is a two-light window with trefoil heads and may have originated in the stair turret.

Evidence of probable medieval wall painting was uncovered on the higher end wall of the hall during recent renovation work. While this may no longer survive on the ground floor, it was very likely to have continued further up where it may well still survive beneath later plaster.

Although the roof space is not currently accessible, the first floor reveals closely spaced trusses that curve into the walls and may extend down them considerably, suggesting that medieval timbers are likely to survive in the roof structure.

This is an important early house of considerable status, preserving good features including a particularly unusual and ornate decorated timber doorway. Other early features probably remain to be uncovered.