Crump Farm House And Barn

Crump Farm House and Barn

A farmhouse and adjacent threshing barn, dating largely from the mid-late 18th century, with the house possibly incorporating the remains of an earlier building.

The house and barn are constructed from local stone rubble brought to course, with dressed quoins of the same material, set under Welsh slate roofs.

The house is rectangular on plan, a single-depth range running north-south, with a projecting wing to the west and a later, single-storey lean-to section to the north. The barn is rectangular on plan, a single-depth range with a large porch to the west and a projecting extension to the east side.

The house is of two storeys, with an attic and undercroft. The main eastern elevation has four bays, including a short projecting gabled wing to the north end. The window openings have stone or concrete moulded lintels with segmental arches and projecting keystones, over 20th-century timber casements, one to either side of the entrance doorway and three above. The rendered north elevation has a 20th-century window opening at first-floor level in the gable and a pair of 20th-century French doors inserted in the ground floor. The rear has three window bays to the main range, similar to those in the main elevation. The attic has two small shuttered openings set high under the eaves. To the north end is a single-storey lean-to extension with a steeply pitched roof, featuring a wide doorway and a timber casement window.

The barn appears to have been a threshing barn, with a large porch to the west. It is a high single storey, consisting of a long rectangular range with a projecting porch and opposing openings, and a later 20th-century extension to the east. The main elevation has regular square ventilation holes to the southern end, indicating use for the storage of grain or straw.

The northernmost room of the house's main range is the dairy, which retains its flagstone floor and low stone work surfaces. The remainder of the interior is based on a corridor plan, with rooms set to the west of the corridor on the ground floor. The majority of surviving doors date from the later 18th century: those to the ground floor are largely panelled and set within moulded and pegged timber doorframes; to the first and attic floors, they are plank and batten examples, some with wooden latches and some with strap hinges or L-hinges. There is a wide fireplace opening with bressumer over in the central room of the main range, which also has a small cupboard set above the doorway with a moulded door and butterfly hinges. A narrower fireplace with a segmental-arched opening exists in the southernmost room. The first floor has its corridor to the east and has been slightly reordered, leaving a small fireplace now on the landing. There is a 19th-century cast iron fire grate in the southernmost room.

Part of the attic has a ceiling which, together with the walls and timbers, is whitewashed; the room has low shuttered openings with ventilation, indicating use for the production or storage of food. One truss is closed, with a doorway housing a wide plank and batten door, creating a cheese room of the 18th century. The trusses are formed from paired principal rafters with tie beams, collar, single purlins, yoke and ridge piece. The timbers are pegged, with some later iron fixings in addition.

The kitchen wing contains a single large room with a substantial exposed truss, formed from paired principal rafters with tie beam, queen post struts, collar and single, staggered purlin, all tenoned and pegged. A stone-built undercroft with a continuous vaulted roof runs under almost the entire building, with flagstone floor set with parallel drainage channels. The section beneath the kitchen wing has a substantial exposed ceiling beam set on rounded timber corbels.

The barn's interior is dominated by the open roof structure, formed of trusses similar to those in the house but more roughly hewn. The eastern bay is fitted out as a late 20th-century milking parlour.

It is possible that an earlier, perhaps early 17th-century house existed on the site, including the wing which currently houses the kitchen, but the remainder of the current building appears to date from the mid-late 18th century, with some later alterations. Crump Farm, the adjacent barn, stables and other outbuildings are present on the tithe map of 1840. The agricultural outbuildings were altered over the next 100 years of mapping, but the house remains completely unaltered in its footprint since that date. The house received some remodelling during the later 19th century, including the replacement of most of its fenestration. The farm buildings underwent more alteration since the mid-19th century, mostly in the form of 19th and 20th-century extensions, and all but the barn were semi-derelict at the time of inspection in 2008.