Hayes Farmhouse

Hayes Farmhouse is a timber-framed farmhouse dating to the mid-17th century, with an addition from the early 19th century. It is built on a stone plinth, with some white-rendered infill, the front being painted render on brickwork. The roof is slate, with an older part tiled. The main front is three windows wide and two storeys high; the house is three rooms deep, with a two-storey rear section containing attics.

The garden front features a rendered plinth, a six-panelled front door with top glass, a fielded centre panel and a flush bottom panel, accessed by two stone steps, and a rectangular fanlight with marginal lights. Flanking the door are French doors, also with marginal lights, raised on two stone steps. Above, a plain rendered string course runs along the front, above which are three four-pane sash windows. Wide plastered eaves and a hipped roof are present, along with plain brick chimneys at the ends.

The return elevation facing the yard shows painted brickwork in English bond on the left end of the addition, and sash windows on both floors with rubbed brick arches. To the right, the timber-framing is exposed, with two panels per floor and diagonal braces rising to the right wall post. Below a boarded cellar door, accessed by external stone steps, are horizontal iron bars. A tripartite single-pane sash window is centrally positioned on the ground floor, with a projecting frame. The first-floor bressumer is jettied by 75mm, supporting a five-light mullion and transom window with a shallow, plain pediment. A rendered gable above the window hides a tie-beam, and contains a four-pane casement, with a wide verge. To the right, a higher plinth contains a carved stone head behind a rainwater pipe. A short link with a further gable leads to a section with timber framing rendered over, containing single-pane windows and a three-light mullion and transom window under a gable. A first-floor single-pane window is located on the left, under short eaves, while a canted bay on brackets with a two-light mullion and transom window, a hipped tiled roof, and a four-pane casement in the gable are found to the right. On the roof, a large star-plan brick chimney sits on a cross ridge, with a pyramidal top to the belfry behind it.

The interior retains window shutters on the front, scratch-moulded panelling and early 18th-century panelling, two panels high with a moulded dado rail, in the centre room facing the yard. A two-panel door leads to a room behind. The ceiling is divided into eight sections by ovolo-moulded beams. A 1655 cast-iron fireback is unfixed within the house. The farmhouse originally comprised an almost square mid-17th-century timber-framed house with a cut-out back corner, forming a squat ‘L’ shape, with the early 19th-century front added to one long side. Timber framing was rendered over in the 19th century, and partly exposed in the late 20th century.