Kings Farm house, the upper and lower stables, looseboxes, calveshouse and open-fronted implement shed

Kings Farm comprises a farmhouse built around 1777 for Thomas Hancox of Daneway House, together with associated agricultural buildings including two stable blocks (one dated 1834), looseboxes, a calveshouse and an open-fronted implement shed.

All buildings are constructed from local limestone rubble, some with dressed quoins. Roofs are covered with a mixture of Cotswold stone tiles and Welsh slate. The agricultural buildings partly surround a courtyard, fully enclosed on the north and east sides and partly enclosed to the south. The farmhouse stands slightly apart to the west.

The Farmhouse

The house is a double-fronted range of two storeys and three bays, with a central gabled entrance porch. A lower single-storey bay with attic stands at the left end, featuring a gabled half-dormer and gable-end stack. To the right, an outshut returns to form a narrow gabled bay, with a glazed lean-to beyond. The main range has been rendered, presumably to conceal a blocked first-floor window in the central bay. One of the gable-end stacks, built in limestone ashlar with moulded top, bears the date 1777. A 20th-century replacement door fills the wide entrance opening, with glazed panels above raised and fielded panels. All windows are horizontal three-light timber casements. Gabled dormers are set centrally in both front and rear roof slopes.

The rear elevation is less regular. An outshut clasps the rear of the original range and returns to the east end, with two gabled dormers positioned at irregular intervals. Behind the later western bay is a lean-to with small external stack, possibly a former dairy or brewhouse.

The interior is accessed through the central porch doorway, beyond which stands a tongue-and-groove baffle, with six-panel doors leading to the principal rooms on either side. Both ground-floor rooms have exposed ceiling beams and winder stairs of oak treads and risers set behind doors—one a late 18th-century plank-and-batten door, the other a 19th-century six-panel door. The left-hand room contains a late 19th-century slate fireplace with panels painted as faux marble and tiled inset. A deep alcove with arched top and surrounding moulded bead is set into the depth of the former rear wall. The right-hand room has a moulded timber fireplace of similar date, with built-in cupboards behind 19th-century panelled doors.

The additional western bay is reached through a late 18th-century plank-and-batten door with strap hinges. Its ground-floor room has a fireplace recess with timber bressumer, late 19th-century plate racks and an exposed ceiling beam. A 19th-century plank-and-batten door leads to the rear lean-to. The outshut running along the rear of the main range houses a late 19th-century straight-flight stair with turned newels and stick balusters against its rear wall.

The first floor has two rooms in the main range. One contains the blocked opening for an earlier sash window. Both rooms have exposed ceiling beams, some chamfered. The right-hand room features a small moulded and shouldered timber fireplace with semi-circular-arched cast-iron grate with moulded details. The emergence point of the winder stair has been converted to a cupboard above waist height, behind an 18th-century door. Adjacent stands a small cupboard, perhaps formerly a smoking chamber, with L- and H-hinges to its 18th-century door. Both rooms have late 18th-century plank doors.

The outshut is divided into bathroom, corridor and bedroom. The corridor leads to another corridor running from front to back of the main range, giving access to one bedroom in the main range and the attic room in the western bay. This attic room has an exposed A-frame roof truss with lapped-on collar and iron fixings. The corridor also provides access to the winder stair to the attic, behind a plank-and-batten door. The attic is divided into two spaces by an 18th-century plank-and-batten door. The exposed roof structure comprises A-frame trusses with chamfered butt purlins and tenoned collars. Some wide elm floorboards survive throughout.

The Looseboxes

This three-bay range, probably from the first half of the 19th century, adjoins the former dairy to the west and the stable range to the east. The high single-storey building is stone-built to the rear and timber-clad on a timber frame to the front, with three stable doors. The front slope is covered in Cotswold stone tiles, the rear in clay pantiles. The boxes are divided by three-quarter-height timber partitions, each retaining its timber manger and rails. The steep roof comprises trusses of paired principal rafters, tie beam, collar, yoke and twin purlins. Some later strengthening has been added but the roof retains almost all original common rafters. Much of the rear slope, including trusses, reportedly collapsed after inspection, by May 2013.

The Stable Range

This three-bay range adjoins the looseboxes and bears a datestone of 1834. Unlike the other agricultural buildings, it is constructed from squared and coursed limestone rather than rubble. The central entrance doorway is flanked by window openings, all in dressed limestone with four-centred-arched tops. Stone steps attached to the main elevation at the eastern end rise to a plank door accessing the hayloft above. The rear elevation is blind. The roof is covered in Welsh slate. The ruins of former stone-built pigsties extend forward from the western end of the main elevation.

The floor is paved in brick with moulded drainage channels, extending through the doorway to form a threshold with bull-nosed bricks at the front edge. Timber plank partitions to half-height divide the space into three bays. Parts of mangers, rails and other timber fittings remain in place. The building is divided horizontally with boards set on large-section timber joists. The first floor is not accessible.

The Calveshouse

This small one-and-a-half-storey building adjoins the southern end of the ruined cowhouse range. The gable end exposed by the adjacent collapse has been infilled in brick. The first floor has a taking-in door; the ground floor has a door and window under timber lintels. The roof is covered in corrugated metal. The interior was not accessible.

The Lower Stable

Dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, this building stands south-east of the farmhouse. One bay, perhaps the former cider house, extends into the garden below the house. The range is single storey with hayloft above, comprising three bays plus an additional narrower bay at the western end. The rear wall facing the farmyard is blind, with an infilled door opening under a timber lintel. The eastern end has a stone-built stair with curved wrought-iron handrail leading to a plank door to the hayloft in the gable end, with a ground-floor door to one side. The western end has a pegged timber doorway under timber lintel giving access to the main range, with another similar doorway at right angles into the additional bay. Above the apex of the additional bay, a former taking-in door in the gable end of the main range has been infilled in brick. The roof is covered in Cotswold stone tiles, with a 20th-century rooflight set centrally in the northern slope.

The additional bay, accessible only from outside, may be the cider house recorded in the 1899 sales particulars. This single room is partly divided horizontally, leaving part exposed to the roof. The truss comprises an A-frame of principal rafters, collar and single purlins, with a small yoke at the apex. There is no ridge piece. Two small splayed openings pierce the gable end, one to the ground floor and one in the attic. The horizontal division is formed by heavy ceiling beams with joists and planks laid over. The limewashed walls indicate use for storage or processing of foodstuffs at some time.

The main range is also limewashed internally and is now a single open space. The large chamfered ceiling beams retain slots for the original joists, which have been replaced later along with the plank floor of the hayloft, which is not accessible.

The Open-Fronted Implement Shed

This small four-bay single-storey shed, probably dating from the second half of the 19th century, stands to the rear of the barn and former cowhouses, facing away from the farmyard into a second yard. Stone walls enclose both ends and the rear, which is now partly collapsed. The open front is carried on four chamfered timber uprights with chamfered pads above carrying the wall plate; each upright stands on a moulded stone base. The roof, whose trusses comprise tie beams, paired principal rafters and collars, has been covered in corrugated metal.