Pound Farmhouse

Pound Farmhouse is a timber-framed farmhouse dating from the first half of the 17th century, incorporating an earlier building. It has been altered in the 18th century with minor changes in the 19th century. The structure stands on a stone plinth with rendered timber panels, the left elevation being fully rendered. The roof is covered in stone slate with one slope shingled. Rear extensions are constructed of random rubble and English garden wall bond brick.

The building is arranged in a 'U' plan, with the original courtyard infilled and wings extended. The left extension is single storey. The front is four rooms wide and two storeys, with attics only at the right end. On the main garden elevation, all windows are fixed with double ovolo heads and sills, with single ovolo mullions and transoms and iron opening lights. The framing consists of close studs except where otherwise noted: on the right there are 5 panels high to the eaves, 2 panels per floor to the porch and centre, a single panel at ground floor, and 2 square panels above the left.

A four-light window sits on the right at ground floor. The porch projects to the right of centre with a flat-headed opening, double ovolo moulding, approached by 4 stone steps. Above is a grille with turned balusters; inside stands an original boarded door with cyma frame and 2-pane fanlight. To the left is a blocked window, with a chamfered opening to a cellar in the plinth below. A five-light window to the left overlooks plinth steps that rise for the last section; a 3-light window follows. The first floor has a 3-light window on the right, set lower than elsewhere, with a jowl to the corner post. There is a slight jetty to 3 sides of the porch with double ovolo moulding; a 3-light window sits in the gable above, with collar and tie beam gable truss, and a single-light window in the left return. Centre windows are 3 and 5-light; the left section has a 3-light window. Angle braces run from jowled heads to main posts from the former tie beam. The roof is hipped.

The rear features an ashlar base to the centre chimney with diamond-set brick stacks, matching chimneys on the right return ridge and on the left side of the centre. The left return is rendered on a stone plinth with a blocked door approached by 5 stone steps on the right. A canted oriel on the left has a 3-light mullion and transom window and a hipped roof supported by curved ovolo ribs from a stone corbel. Above are 2 and 3-light windows matching the front.

Interior arrangements include a staircase in a turret behind the porch at the rear, with square newels, turned balusters, ramped moulded handrail, and continuous string. To the rear of the right ground floor room is a hollow chamfer to the main beam; cross beams towards the front have straight chamfer with bar and pyramid stops. The central room at the front features a double ovolo with hollow between leading to the fireplace, with moulded ceiling beams. The front room on the left has heavy chamfered ceiling beams and a 17th-century plaster cornice below; beams in the room behind match those in the central room. The first floor has pyramid and bar stop beams in the centre room, two 17th-century boarded doors with original hinges, and moulded ceiling beams to the left front room. The centre has queen-strut trusses with curved braces to the struts, 2 pairs of purlins, and no ridge timber. The left wing has collar, tie beam and angle-strut trusses. A three-bay single-storey brick cider house to the rear on the left has dentil eaves, tie-beam trusses with angle struts, one pair of purlins, and a plank ridge.

The present 17th-century house incorporates 2 bays of an early two-storey timber-framed house, with lower floor levels in the rear of the right wing. One bay was enlarged in front and an attic storey added above when the rest of the house was built. Later rear extensions followed. A passage was built on the ground floor across the back of the house, probably in the 18th century; a similar passage on the first floor was added later. The front was probably gabled at each end originally, with the roof reformed in the 18th century.

The farmhouse forms a group with an 18th-century barn and cowhouse.