Ford Farmhouse

Ford Farmhouse

Farmhouse dating from the early-to-mid 17th century, built on an older site and modernised around 1970. The building is constructed of plastered granite; where the plaster has been removed, large crudely-squared blocks laid to rough courses are visible. The chimneys are granite, with one retaining its original granite ashlar chimneyshaft. The roof is slate, replacing earlier thatch.

The house faces south, looking up a hillslope that also slopes gently from west to east. It follows a 4-room-and-through-passage plan, a development of the late medieval model, with the whole house floored from the beginning. The large inner parlour room, heated by a gable-end stack, is positioned downhill at the eastern end. The hall is reduced to an unheated lobby leading off the passage, which contains the main staircase (apparently a rebuild of the original). This stair rises to the rear wall then divides to serve both main bedchambers, each containing original fireplaces. The service end contains the kitchen with a massive axial stack backing onto a fourth room. This large fourth room is original to the house but remains puzzling as it appears superfluous to the otherwise comprehensively planned layout. Its gable-end stack is a late 19th-to-early 20th-century insertion. A curious small fireplace in the back of the kitchen stack contains a large ash pit; the owners report removing three phases of forge from the front of it. This has led to speculation that the room may originally have been built as a workshop, possibly reflecting the farm's historical association with mining.

The house is two storeys throughout, with two-storey outshots that were rebuilt to this height around 1970. The exterior features an irregular front with five windows of 20th-century casements with glazing bars; a French window to the kitchen replaced a former narrow slit window. The passage front doorway is positioned right of centre and contains a 19th-century plank door. The roof is gable-ended.

Internally, the passage is lined on both sides with oak plank-and-muntin screens, the muntins chamfered with step stops. A section of screening into the hall/entrance lobby has been removed. All ground-floor rooms feature soffit-chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams (except for a replacement beam in the left end room). The granite fireplaces have oak lintels with similar finishes, as do the first-floor doorways from the stairs. The kitchen fireplace is particularly large, containing two enormous ovens; the largest has been cut through by a passage connecting the room behind (the putative workshop) to the dairy outshot. A secondary cream oven is positioned to the left, separated from the main fireplace by a new cheek made from a single slab of granite. An enigmatic feature is a wide alcove in the back kitchen wall; it is unclear whether this formerly opened into the dairy outshot behind or was intended for kitchen cupboards. Throughout the roof, A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars featuring dovetail-shaped halvings carry the load.

Ford represents an interesting single-phase plan exemplifying a late stage in the evolution of the modern house-type from the medieval hall-house. The owners have traced the documentary history of the house back to its first mention in the Domesday Book.