Stable, Shippon And Gatehouse About 12 Metres South West Of Chittleford Farmhouse

The building comprises a stable, shippon, and gatehouse, situated approximately 12 metres southwest of Chittleford Farmhouse. The stable originated in the 16th century, although it has been substantially rebuilt and potentially enlarged. The gatehouse and shippon likely date to the 17th century, with a 20th-century addition on the northwest side.

The building is constructed of granite rubble with a corrugated iron roof. The layout consists of a long, single-depth range facing the road, with a former domestic building set behind and parallel to it, across a cobbled courtyard. The stable range is located to the right, featuring a disused fireplace in each gable wall, with the original 16th-century work at the left-hand end. To the left of the stable is a slightly lower shippon range, culminating in a gatehouse at its right-hand end. The building is single-storied with a loft.

The stable’s end wall has three doorways, the central one featuring a flat arch with rough voussoirs. A small, inserted window is positioned to the left. The right-hand gable wall contains a slit window with a dripstone above. The gatehouse has an old cobbled floor and double doors with old wrought-iron strap-hinges, their terminals shaped like elaborated fleurs-de-lys. Inside the gatehouse, on the right, is an older painted granite gatepost with three-quarter-round moulding, next to a granite mounting block with the date 1760 scratched into the wall above. The shippon has a doorway on the right, with a loft door above, the latter featuring an old plank door with wrought-iron strap-hinges. Two windows are situated to the left of the shippon. A drain outlet and two ventilation slits are found in the left-hand gable wall. Both the stable and shippon have old plank doors facing the house.

Inside the stable, a granite fireplace with a corbelled lintel is located at the gatehouse end, while a simpler fireplace with a roughly chamfered wood lintel and granite jambs is present in the opposite gable wall. Most of the roof trusses were rebuilt in the 18th or early 19th century. However, at the gatehouse end, a cruck with short, curved feet, dating from the 16th century, remains – it originally had a morticed collar and through-purlins, and a triangular strengthening block below the apex; it is unclear if it originally included a ridge piece. A later cruck truss, with short angled feet, is present at the other end; this was originally designed for a thatched roof with thatching spars, rather than common rafters. The interior of the shippon has been concreted.