Byfords Farmhouse

Byfords Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the early 17th century. It is a timber-framed building, with brick-nogging on part, set on a plinth of random-rubble stone and brick. The front facade is rendered, while the extension features Sussex-bond brickwork, and the roof is slate-covered. Originally L-shaped, the farmhouse has been enlarged at one end and is now three bays wide and part two rooms deep, with attics. The entrance has a boarded door under a gabled porch, approached by four stone steps. The side walls are brick, with an open timber front. There is a cellar opening with a cambered brick head to one side. A late 20th-century extension has been added on the left. On the first floor are three-light casement windows, one on the right and one on the left. A gable chimney is located at the left end of the original house. The right return is timber-framed, with two panels per floor, four-pane windows on the ground floor and a two-light casement above. Two collars are visible in the gable, along with a late 20th-century two-light casement. The rear of the farmhouse has a high plinth and a large stone chimney projection, with a two-light casement to the left on the ground floor. A stone wing projects from the right side; it has a slight batter to the plinth and a boarded door to the cellar. The ground floor features close-studded framing, with a two-light casement window on the left and a single-pane window below the cellar stairs. A brick extension is found on the right, with a two-light casement and a cambered brick head. The first floor shows framing with two panels to the left of the chimney, a tall brick stack above eaves level and framing with three panels to the wing, alongside a two-light casement. A single-pane window is in the gable. A brick extension on the right features a two-light casement and a gable to the right return. Inside, the ground-floor front features heavy chamfering to the beams and exposed ceiling joists to the left of the entrance. The entrance originally opened directly into the left room with a passage added later. A spiral stair is located in the right-hand side of the rear wing. The cellar is beneath the left half of the house only, and contains four stop-chamfered posts. The roof over the two-bay front has two pairs of purlins with straight windbraces attached to the lower pair from the wallplate.