Chittleford Farmhouse

Chittleford Farmhouse

This is a farmhouse, formerly a longhouse, dating to the 16th century or earlier and remodelled in 1689. It is constructed of granite rubble with a slated roof. The main range has granite ashlar chimneysstacks with thatch weatherings and tapered tops on each gable. The rear range has smaller rendered stacks on the right-hand and gable-walls, the latter with thatch weatherings.

The original plan appears to have comprised a shippon and cross-passage at the left-hand end, both now demolished and replaced by a small lean-to. The hall and parlour occupy the right portion, formerly connected by a through-passage (the rear doorway of which has been converted into a window), probably inserted in 1689. A rear wing, originally 2 rooms long and believed to have been built in two stages, was probably added in the 17th century. The shippon was demolished in the early 20th century, though its gable-wall survives as part of a pigsty (separately listed).

The building is 2 storeys with a 3-window front. The two ground-storey windows have straight hood-moulds with carved terminals; the granite lintels are from former mullioned windows and were found in the garden in the 20th century. All windows have 20th-century casements except for one possibly 19th-century window in the centre of the second storey. At the centre of the ground storey is a gabled granite ashlar porch with a round-arched doorway featuring three-quarter-round moulding and carved spandrels including the initials TL and the date 1689. Above the arch is a moulded cornice, and at the apex of the gable is a ball-finial. The inner doorway has a 20th-century wood frame, but the door itself may predate 1689; it is made of studded vertical planks with scratch mouldings at the edges and has wrought-iron strap-hinges with fleurs-de-lys terminals. The rear doorway of the through-passage (now a window) has a hood-mould with carved terminals, with its lintel formerly the head of a mullioned window, also found in the garden. At the left-hand end wall, re-set from the front door of the original cross-passage, is a moulded four-centred granite arch with carved spandrels. Above it is an old carved stone emblem with the date 1890 added beneath.

Interior features include the right-hand ground-storey room (former parlour), which has a very large granite fireplace with chamfered jambs having pyramid stops and an ogee-moulded lintel fitting the opening exactly. The upper part of the lintel, butted by the upper floor joists, is carved with primitive figures of a fox and a goose. The left-hand room has a hollow-moulded granite fireplace with a corbelled lintel, which must originally have backed onto the through-passage. In the wing, the side-fireplace adjacent to the front range has hollow-moulded joists and a plain lintel, all of granite. The gable fireplace has a roughly-chamfered wood lintel with run-out stops. The roof-trusses date to the late 17th or early 18th century, with collars pegged and nailed to the faces of the principal rafters.

The demolished shippon end is shown on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey Map of 1905 and is reported to be illustrated in a watercolour belonging to a former resident. The quality of the building and its excellent outbuildings (separately listed) indicate that this was the house of someone of considerable social standing.