Colcharton Farmhouse

Farmhouse with mid 16th-century origins, substantially remodelled and extended over three centuries. The building comprises the original structure with a rear wing added in the 18th century, and a major replacement of the upper end and construction of a two-storey block in the mid 19th century.

The main structure is built of granite and slatestone rubble with granite and Hurdwick stone dressings, roofed in asbestos slate. The 19th-century block is rendered and lined out, partially slate-hung, with a hipped slate roof.

Architecturally, the farmhouse originally followed a three-room and through-passage plan. The 18th-century rear wing, added to the lower end, provided additional heated service rooms with a stair inserted in the rear of the lower end room for access. The upper end was demolished and replaced around the mid 19th century by a two-storey cross wing, the passage was widened, and a straight stair inserted to the right of the passage. The lower end was also extended to the left in the 18th century, probably for stabling. The building appears originally to have had a two-storey gabled entrance porch, its gable removed during 19th-century re-roofing when the cross wing was built forward to align with the porch line.

The front elevation presents two storeys in an asymmetrical four-window range. The taller 19th-century block to the right contains a French window and 12-pane sash on the first floor, with slate-hung cheeks to the left above the lower roof line. The passage entry features a three-centred arched chamfered Hurdwick stone doorway with masks set in the spandrels and a flat-headed roll-moulded surround. Inside the porch are benches to either side, a Hurdwick stone eaves cornice, a keeping hole, and a granite ceiling. The inner doorway is in granite with a chamfered four-centred arch, recessed spandrels with roundels, and a 19th-century four-centred arched four-panelled door with glazed panels. A two-light casement above sits under the eaves with double roll and hollow-moulded jambs and chamfered cill, the lintel cut away. To the left is an early 19th-century small 12-pane sash with four-pane sidelights and cambered head at ground and first floor, with an oven projection at the base of the stack. A stable door to the end left has a six-pane light under the eaves. A lean-to at the end is refaced in concrete block.

The left gable end displays a central ground-floor 20th-century two-light casement and a 20th-century casement under the eaves, a 19th-century rubble lean-to with a half-glazed door to the left, and a hipped end roof. The right side of the wing is entirely slate-hung with a 12-pane sash at first floor right and stacks rising from the eaves right and left. The rear of the wing has a French window and 12-pane sash on the first floor, both with cambered brick heads. A narrow two-storey porch projects from the rear passage entry with a half-glazed door and six-pane sash with gauged brick head. The rear of the lower end has a 19th-century three-light casement with iron stanchions and timber lintel at ground floor, a similar three-light casement at first floor, and a tall eight-pane sash to the right lighting the rear stair. The 18th-century two-storey rear wing to the right has a hipped roof and stack at the rear right corner, with a ground-floor three-light casement and first-floor 16-pane sash on the rear, and a ground-floor two-light casement and small ventilation opening with timber lintel on the inner side, with a blocked opening under the eaves.

The interior passage retains a lintel in the left wall, with a six-panelled door to the lower end and a straight stair of early to mid 19th-century date to the left, fitted with side panelling and stick balusters, descending two granite steps to the kitchen. The kitchen contains a spice cupboard with door opening onto the passage and a built-in dresser of around 1820 with two-panelled cupboard doors and reeded surround. An 18th-century wooden mantel sits above the fireplace in the front lateral stack. A straight boxed stair leads to the rear. The joists are plain chamfered. The rear wing formerly housed a dairy. The 19th-century wing to the right has two rooms at ground floor fitted with cornices and shutters to the windows.