East Fingle Farmhouse

East Fingle Farmhouse is a farmhouse, likely dating to the mid to late 16th century, with possible earlier elements and improvements made in the 17th century. Modernization occurred in the late 19th century. It is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble stacks topped with plastered 20th-century brick, and a corrugated iron roof covering the original thatch.

The house has a long, four-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south and built across a hillslope. The kitchen, situated at the east end, features a large gable-end stack. A large axial stack backs onto the passage within the hall. An unheated room, originally likely a dairy, was converted into an entrance hall with a 19th-century staircase. The parlour, at the west end, also has a gable-end stack. A fifth room at this end was demolished in the early 20th century. The original layout appears to have been an open hall house, possibly with an open hearth fire. The current plan evolved by the mid to late 17th century. The hall fireplace is probably late 16th to early 17th century, and the hall was floored over in the early to mid 17th century. The service end room was rebuilt as a kitchen in the mid 17th century while the parlour was rebuilt or newly constructed in the mid to late 17th century. Secondary outshots to the rear have since been incorporated into living areas. The house is two stories high.

The front facade presents a regular, though not symmetrical, six-window arrangement featuring 20th-century casement windows without glazing bars. The main passage doorway is centrally located, while a doorway to the left was inserted into the former dairy and presently has a 20th-century slate-roofed porch. The roof is gable-ended.

Inside, a good quality mid-17th century oak doorframe, ovolo-moulded with chamfer-step stops and simple carving, leads from the passage to the kitchen. The kitchen’s large crossbeam is roughly finished. The fireplace has a reduced size, with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel of substantial size that originally extended across an alcove to the right, which served as a walk-in curing chamber—sooted cob was found beneath the plaster there. The hall fireplace has a granite lintel with a soffit-chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel, matching the finish of one crossbeam (the other is a late 19th or 20th-century replacement), along with a half beam in the passage. The parlour’s crossbeam is covered with mid to late 17th century plaster and includes a prominent ogee-moulded cornice. The parlour fireplace is blocked by a 20th-century grate. A probable 16th-century jointed or true cruck truss shape is visible over the hall, while straight principals above the former dairy and parlour suggest A-frame trusses were used to replace that section of roof in the 17th century. Much of the early structure is likely hidden by later plaster, some of which is 17th-century.