Croft Farmhouse Including Farm Building Adjoining To North

Croft Farmhouse with adjoining farm building

A farmhouse and adjoining farm building, probably of late medieval origin with significant alterations and extensions spanning several centuries. The building is constructed principally of cob with a stone rubble plinth, though the front has been partly rebuilt in stone rubble. It is roofed with scantle slate with gabled ends, and Bridgewater tiles at the lower right end. The front elevation has a stone rubble lateral stack with a weathered set-off and tall granite shaft with a granite cap, heightened in the 19th century in red brick. A further red brick shaft is present at the left hand end.

The main building comprises a three-room and cross-passage plan with the higher end positioned to the left. The higher end contains a relatively large inner room heated from a gable end stack, with a later staircase inserted at its lower end against the hall partition. At the lower right end is a small unheated room, beyond which lies the adjoining farm building. The passage between the lower room and hall has no back doorway, and the hall itself has a lateral stack at the front.

A hall stack was inserted probably in the mid to late 16th century, and the house was remodelled, floored, and extended in circa the mid-17th century. The evidence suggests that at least the hall was originally open to the roof, with the front lateral stack inserted before the hall was finally floored in the mid-17th century. This is indicated by the high lintel of the hall fireplace, which differs in character from the hall ceiling beams with their bar stops. When floored, the higher end was extended and its front wall built forward in line with the hall stack. The lower end may have been truncated also in the mid-17th century to form a small unheated service room, with its lower roof extending over the farm buildings beyond. The range of outbuildings around the courtyard to the east, in front of the house, may have been constructed at the same time as the mid-17th-century remodelling.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical three-window front. The ground floor has two wooden 17th-century ovolo-moulded four-light windows at the centre and left, and a similar three-light window on the first floor to the left. The first floor centre and right have late 19th-century one and two-light casements with glazing bars. The passage features a late 19th-century plank door set back with a shallow rectangular overlight above. Immediately to the right of the passage doorway is a large baulk of timber set into the wall, which may be the foot of a cruck. A small circa 17th-century single-light window with a chamfered wooden frame lies to the right. The lower end appears to have been rebuilt as a farm building in cob on a stone rubble plinth, with a lower level tiled roof with a gabled end, a ground floor plank door to the right, and a loft door at the centre. The rear elevation is cob to the right, with a stone rubble back wall to the left set back slightly, and three 19th-century casements with glazing bars.

The hall interior, which was inspected, displays three chamfered cross-beams with large rather crude bar-type stops. The large lateral fireplace has granite monolith jambs and a chamfered timber lintel set very high with straight-cut stops. At the higher end of the hall is a bench with shaped feet, probably incorporating reused 17th-century panelling for the back.

The extent of later alterations remains uncertain due to limited access, though there appears to have been remarkably little alteration since the 19th century. The building retains 19th-century modifications in addition to these earlier phases of development.