Hill

Hill is a former farmhouse of outstanding architectural and historical significance. A medieval house of at least two phases, it was substantially remodelled in the 17th century.

The building is constructed of colourwashed rendered stone rubble and cob, with a complex roofline reflecting its evolution: the main block has a thatched roof, gabled at the left end and hipped at the right end, while a gabled wing projects to the front right. The thatch has been replaced with slate on the front of the ridge for both the main block and wing. Chimneys include a projecting stack at the left end, an axial stack to the main block, and an end stack to the wing.

The plan is L-shaped, with the main block facing east containing two rooms and a through passage, its lower end to the left (south), and a front right wing containing two rooms arranged at right angles to the hall. This plan form largely preserves the late medieval layout. The hall remains unfloored, with a stack backing onto the passage. The lower end contains a parlour with a fine heated first-floor chamber above, and a kitchen wing in front of the hall, now partitioned into two. Stairs rise from the passage against the front wall to access the room over the parlour, with an additional stair against the front wall of the wing and a third stair (a 20th-century replacement) adjacent to the hall stack.

Medieval evidence shows complex development: two medieval roofs exist over the hall, the lower one earlier than the higher roof, both heavily sooted. The hall stack, backing onto the passage, was probably inserted in the 16th century, though it has been suggested this was preceded by a smoke hood, with the granite ashlar back of the stack possibly originating as a freestanding wall for an open hearth. The kitchen wing of approximately late 16th-century date replaced an earlier, narrower medieval wing. In approximately the late 16th century, the lower end was remodelled as a high-quality parlour with distinguished plasterwork on the ground floor and a similarly decorated heated chamber above. The medieval front right wing was enlarged, raised and re-roofed, probably in the 16th century. Rear outshuts to the hall and parlour are later additions now roofed with corrugated iron. Repairs in the 1970s involved refenestration, removal of post-17th-century partitioning in the kitchen wing, and reconstruction of the kitchen chimney shaft.

The exterior is two storeys except for the hall, which is ceiled below the collar level of the trusses. The asymmetrical east front has two windows, with the kitchen wing projecting to the front at the right (north) end. A wide panelled door to the through passage is positioned right of centre, with a slate canopy carried on moulded timber brackets. Windows comprise 19th- or 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars, except for the ground floor left, which retains a 17th-century three-light timber mullioned window with ovolo-moulded mullions, leaded panes and internal iron stanchions. The inner return of the wing has a central doorway to the kitchen and two first-floor two-light casements with glazing bars and one ground-floor window. The outer return has one small square ground-floor window to the left and a three-light 17th-century timber mullioned window to the right with chamfered stopped mullions. The rear elevation of the main block has a tall three-light timber casement with glazing bars to the left; the hall outshut features a small, probably 18th-century, single-light window in the return; the parlour outshut has a two-light window. The gable of the lower (parlour) end has one ground-floor and one first-floor window, both 1970s mullioned replacements.

The interior is outstanding for both the survival of the medieval plan form and for its carpentry, plasterwork and other features. The granite ashlar back of the hall stack is exposed in the passage with a hollow-chamfered plinth; the granite cornice associated with this feature is visible above the passage ceiling. The lower end partition of the passage, probably repositioned, consists of timber with plaster infill. A good 17th-century plank and stud door with strap hinges leads to the stair off the passage.

The hall itself is remarkable: unfloor and plastered up to collar level of the face-pegged jointed cruck truss, whose feet extend to ground level. The purlins and part of the hip cruck are visible but plastered over. A large open fireplace has chamfered granite lintel and jambs, neither jamb tied into the masonry of the fireback. A 19th-century bread oven stands within. A 19th-century dado extends round the rear right corner with a fixed bench for a table in front of the hall window. A heavy oak beam extending from the stack to the front wall may have been part of a timber smoke hood.

The lower end parlour has an open fireplace with ovolo-moulded granite jambs and an ovolo-moulded stopped timber lintel. The ceiling is divided into two sections by a plastered-over crossbeam and features a plaster cornice with a decorated section on the fireplace side showing moulded ribs enriched with floral sprays. Adjacent to the fireplace, a recess containing a drain appears to have been a domestic piscina.

The kitchen is partitioned by an incomplete plank and muntin screen with a cranked-lintel doorway. A chamfered, step-stopped crossbeam with exposed joists is present; a large open fireplace has a chamfered timber lintel and formerly contained two bread ovens, one of which survives with a granite lintel.

The chamber over the parlour contains a fireplace with ovolo-moulded granite jambs and ovolo-moulded timber lintel featuring painted marbling, possibly of 17th-century date. The decorated plaster ceiling displays moulded ribs with floral sprays and a moulded plaster cornice. A closed truss divides this room from the room over the passage, connected by a doorway with a good 17th-century lock. The room over the passage has wide oak floorboards, a keeping place on the rear wall, and the granite cornice of the rear of the hall stack is exposed above the floorboards; a blocked doorway exists in the closed truss. Two rooms occupy the space over the kitchen wing, with the outer (east) room containing a fireplace with plain timber lintel.

The roof structure reveals the building's evolution. The lower of the two roofs over the hall is the earliest, probably 15th-century, with a face-pegged jointed cruck truss and apex of LIE type, complete with sooted rafters, battens and thatch. Between the present kitchen wing and this hall roof, a sooted ridge and rafters with sooted thatch indicate a wing predating the current kitchen wing, concluding in a ruinous closed truss with sooted wattle and daub infill, separated by a void from the westernmost truss of the present kitchen wing, which is wider and higher than its predecessor. The hall roof has been raised by a second sooted ridge fixed to the sawn-off earlier ridge by a birdsmouth post. This ridge continues over the lower end with a closed side-pegged jointed cruck truss of E apex over the lower end partition of the passage, sooted on both sides indicating two open hearths. Surviving rafters are heavily sooted and, though not fully accessible at survey, are known to extend the full length of the lower end. The kitchen wing has two collar rafter trusses with lap-dovetailed collars and straight principal rafters, the eastern truss closed to form the partition between the two rooms.

The house underwent repairs in the 1970s by SPAB Lethaby scholars under the direction of John Schofield. It has group value with an adjacent barn to the south and threshing barn to the east.