Througham Slad Farmhouse Including 2 Walled Courtyards With Gate Pier

This is a large, detached farmhouse, originally built in the mid-to-late 16th century. It was significantly enlarged around 1689 and altered in the mid-18th century. Further alterations were made in 1931 by Norman Jewson for W.A. Cadbury. The house is constructed of random rubble limestone, with some areas roughcast rendered, and has ashlar chimneys and a stone slate roof.

The house comprises a south range with an attic, a north front altered from former dairies, and a cross-wing at the north end that was previously a barn. The north front has two gabled sections; the right-hand gable projects forward. The right gable features a ground-floor three-light and upper-floor two-light recessed cavetto mullioned casement window with a hood mould and a quatrefoil gable vent. To the left are two small single-light windows, one above the other, originally in the stair position. The left gable has ground-floor and upper-floor three-light chamfered mullioned casements, and a single-light window in the attic, all with hood moulds. An entrance doorway has a simply moulded opening and a flat stone porch hood set against the projecting right gable. Two ridge chimneys are present; one bears a datestone inscribed 'I C / 1689'. A former dairy wing projects forward to the left, featuring 20th-century two-light mullioned casements. The gable end of the former barn has three-light casements and a datestone reading 'T M C / 1859'. The property includes two walled courtyards, one with a gateway defined by monolithic gate piers topped with ball finials, and spear-topped iron railings and gates.

The west end has an ashlar chimney with a moulded cap, and a reset 15th-century two-light window with cinquefoil cusping in the upper floor. The south side has three full gables, apparently of different dates, each with mixed fenestration. On the left gable, two 20th-century casements replace original 18th-century sash windows, retaining keyed moulded architraves; mullioned casements are above. The remainder of this range has a mix of mullioned windows, many of which have been restored in the 20th century. The east side features a gable end of the main range with a single window: a three-light window on the ground and upper floors, and a two-light window in the attic. There are rows of pigeon holes with perches above and below the attic casement, and a reset 13th-century lancet window at upper-floor level. A two-storey gabled porch with a datestone reading ‘WA EH / C / 1931’ is attached to the right.

The interior retains a fireplace with a cambered timber lintel in the earliest part of the house, and a small cupboard with a Jacobean door nearby. The remainder of the house was extensively fitted out by Cotswold craftsmen. A timber staircase designed by Norman Jewson features a squared lattice-work balustrade, and all doors date from the same period, with high quality traditional ironmongery by Alfred Bucknell of Waterlane. The farmhouse occupies a good position in a secluded valley.