North Hooe Farmhouse

North Hooe Farmhouse

This is a house, originally a farmhouse, dating from the late 16th century and modified in the 17th century, with additions and alterations made around the mid-19th century. The walls are of colourwashed rubble, and the roof is gable-ended with slate and asbestos slate, varying in pitch and level. There are three rendered rubble chimney stacks: one at the left gable end with a brick shaft, one axial to the barn extension at the right-hand end (formerly a gable stack), and one axial stack, the latter two having slate dripcourses.

The building is two storeys with an asymmetrical front of five windows. The main elevation displays mostly early 20th-century casements with two lights and small panes. A gabled projecting two-storey bay to the left of centre contains three-light casements on both ground and first floors. To its right, the ground floor window is single-light, while the ground floor window at the right hand is four-light. To the right of centre stands a 16th-century four-centred arch doorway in volcanic stone, richly moulded, with what is probably a 19th-century arched plank door. A 19th-century dairy lean-to projects from the front of the left-hand end. At the rear is a gabled stair projection to the right of centre.

The original plan was three-room-and-through-passage, with a hall stack backing onto the passage and gable-end stacks to the inner room and lower room on the right. A shallow two-storey bay with window at the front of the hall at the inner end appears to be original, as does the newel stair situated in a projection on the opposite wall. In the 19th century, the passage was possibly widened at the lower side for the insertion of a staircase, and a small dairy was added adjoining the front of the inner room. At the lower end of the lower room, a two-storey barn was constructed in the 19th century and later converted in the 20th century into living accommodation.

The interior preserves a number of good quality early features. The large lower room fireplace, though its lintel has been replaced, retains a cloam oven at either side. The doorway from the passage to the hall has a 17th-century oak square-headed frame with ovolo moulding and runout stops, accompanied by a contemporary plank door with strap hinges. The hall contains frequently spaced cross beams that are chamfered with hollow step stops. The hall fireplace has hollow chamfered jambs and a replacement chamfered wood lintel, with the original possibly having been granite. A second ovolo-moulded square-headed wooden doorframe with unusual reeded and hollow step stops leads from the rear of the hall to the wide wood newel stairs, which have an 18th-century door of two recessed panels. The inner room contains similar beams to the hall. On the first floor, a small wooden square-headed chamfered doorframe with ogee stops survives.

The roof structure comprises three original trusses over the hall and inner room, consisting of heavy oak principals with threaded purlins and morticed apex. The curved collars are halved into the principals and pegged. All trusses are clean, and the principals appear to have straight feet. The 19th-century dairy has slate shelves. The inserted early to mid-19th-century stairs are an open well type with stick balusters and carved spandrels.

This house was evidently built as a good quality farmhouse and still preserves its interesting plan form with integral hall bay, along with a number of good internal features, while its exterior remains fairly traditional.