Horsham

House, originally a farmhouse. Early 16th century, floored-in probably around 1600, remodelled in the 18th century and extended at the rear in the 20th century.

The building has granite rubble walls with granite quoins and old granite stacks at either gable end with drip-courses. There is an axial stack at the ridge with a rebuilt and rendered shaft. The roof is wood shingle with gable ends.

The original plan was 3-room and through passage with an open hall, unheated inner room and lower end. A closed truss at the upper end of the hall dates from the early 16th century; the inner room possibly always had a chamber above it. An internal jetty at the lower end of the hall over the cross passage survives, though roof renewal has made it difficult to determine if this was an original feature or inserted later. Around 1600 the building was floored and stacks were inserted. The screen at the upper end of the hall dates from this period. A newel staircase was inserted at this stage next to the hall stack, projecting from the front wall. In the 18th century the house was remodelled: the front wall of the hall and lower end was built out in line with and enclosing the stair projection. Room use was re-orientated so the lower end became the parlour and the inner room a service room. A large rear wing was added to the higher end in the 20th century.

The building is 2 storeys with an asymmetrical 4-window front, all 18th century. The windows are 3-light wood casements with leaded panes, except the first floor centre which is a 2-light iron casement. The frames are flush on the outside with moulded timber uprights internally, some retaining stanchion bars. All have probably original timber lintels. At right of centre is a 19th-century plank door to a passage in a 20th-century open-fronted granite porch with weather-boarded gable. Steps lead up to a later doorway at the higher left-hand gable end, which is built partially into the bank. To the rear is an 18th-century doorway to the lower end and various 20th-century windows in small openings. A 20th-century rendered flat-roofed wing extends to the rear. The lower gable end has 3 pigeon holes above a 19th-century lean-to outbuilding.

The interior has been little altered since the 18th century. One substantial original roof truss has survived a bad fire in the mid-20th century: the closed truss at the upper end of the hall. The feet of the trusses are not visible and due to the fire the form of the apex is unclear, but the cranked collar morticed into the trusses suggests an early 16th-century date. Severe charring precludes evidence of any smoke-blackening. The infilling does not survive intact up to the apex but the remains of a wattle and daub partition exist beneath the collar.

The through passage is cobbled. The back of the hall fireplace is characteristically constructed of dressed granite blocks. To the right of the doorway from passage to hall is a small section of plank and muntin screen with chamfered muntin and head-beam, possibly a vestige of the screen which must have extended the full depth of the hall before the fireplace was inserted. The fireplace has roughly dressed monolithic granite jambs and a wooden lintel, chamfered with scroll stops. A stone oven is in the right-hand corner. The internal jetty consists of a cross beam, roughly chamfered with step stops, marking a difference in ceiling height at a point approximately halfway into the depth of the chimney-breast. The ceiling has a central cross beam chamfered with hollow step stops.

At the upper end of the hall a plank and muntin screen extends the original width of the room. The rail and muntins are ovolo-moulded, the latter having high faceted vase stops and a section of apparently original bench survives on a chamfered bracket. The head beam has roll and hollow moulding. The inner room has a cross beam and half beam against the upper end wall which are chamfered with hollow step stops.

To the lower side of the passage the partition is plastered, possibly concealing an early screen. The lower room contains an 18th-century fireplace with moulded cornice and a simple framed stair with square newels and handrail. On the first floor above the lower room is a similar 18th-century fireplace with moulded cornice containing a Victorian grate. 18th and 19th-century plank doors survive on the first floor. Where the newel staircase rose from the hall the stairs have been removed but the curved recess in the wall remains. A wooden door-frame contemporary with the newel staircase survives where the stairs would originally have opened onto the first floor and is chamfered with a cranked head. The existing framed staircase is probably 18th century; underneath it in the hall is a cupboard with H-hinge doors and ventilation lights.

Outside, the traditional cobbled yard survives in the immediate vicinity of the house, with an old leat system. Despite the 20th-century rear wing and subdivision of the building into 2 units, the house survives in a very traditional and unspoilt condition, little changed since the 18th century, and retains interesting features of that period as well as being a good example of a medieval open-hall house with internal jetty.