Church Farmhouse

Church Farmhouse is a detached house dating largely from the 17th century with a 16th century core, located at the east end of Harescombe Hill Lane. The building is constructed from squared and coursed limestone with limestone ashlar chimneys, one partly rebuilt in brick, and a plain clay tile roof. It has two storeys and an attic, with an L-shaped plan comprising a main range of lobby-entry type running north-south and a cross wing running east-west to the north. A 19th century lean-to extension in two phases extends to the south of the main range.

The main elevation features a gable to the left, with the main range of three bays and a central entrance door under a deep hood mould. The stone mullioned windows to this range are of two and three lights, with hood moulds to the ground floor of the main range and first and attic floors of the gabled wing. A single fixed light to the ground floor lights the winder stair in this wing. The rear elevation has an external stack to the gable end of the cross wing and an offset entrance door to the main range. The fenestration is irregular, a mixture of one and two-light stone mullioned windows, with the ground floor and attic windows of the main range and cross wing having hood moulds. The northern elevation of the cross wing has three-light stone mullioned windows, those to the ground floor with hood moulds.

The ground floor rooms in the main range have limestone flag floors, 20th century fireplaces to the massive central stack, and exposed ceiling beams. The room to the south has a single ceiling beam with deep chamfers and stepped stops, and retains its stair alongside the stack. That to the north has lateral and transverse beams with deep chamfers, 19th century shutters and panelling to dado height. The lobby retains its original 17th century plank and stud door and hinges. The cross wing has a winder stair, partly built into the external wall at its junction with the main range, extending upwards into the attic to give access to rooms in both ranges. The rooms in the cross wing have limestone floors divided by plank and muntin partitions. The room to the east has a limestone fireplace with a shallow four-centred arched top. First floor rooms follow the same layout as the ground floor, with two rooms in the main range and one large room in the cross wing. These rooms all have exposed chamfered ceiling beams and further plank and muntin screens dividing the two ranges and partitioning the space within the cross wing. The roof structure is of simple A-frames with twin trenched purlins and collars. The attic in the cross wing is divided by a further plank and muntin screen.

The house has a barn and cartshed or cattle shelter to its south, forming two sides of a farmyard. Although these buildings are not of special architectural interest, they do form a coherent group with the house.

Church Farmhouse appears to have been constructed in the 16th century as a single-depth, two-roomed timber-framed house, either one or one-and-a-half storeys high, perhaps open to the roof. In the early to mid-17th century, the house was extended by the addition of a large two-storey wing set at right-angles to the earlier range and running east-west. The external walls of the timber-framed house appear to have been rebuilt in stone at this time and raised to a full two storeys, and the whole structure re-roofed. The building was a relatively high status house at this time. In the mid to late 19th century (post-1840), a single-storey lean-to kitchen was added to the south of the original range, with a further extension to its east forming a wash-house. Otherwise the house has been little altered, probably due to its being occupied by tenant farmers until the late 20th century. The farm buildings, comprising a barn and cartshed or cattle shelter, were present on the site by 1840.