Upperton Farmhouse Including Garden Walls Adjoining To South

Upperton Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating back to the 16th century, with later improvements in the late 16th and 17th centuries, and a major modernization in the late 19th century. The walls are plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with stone stacks topped with 19th-century brick, and a thatched roof.

The building is L-shaped, with the main block facing south and built down a gentle slope. It originally had a four-room-and-through-passage plan, including a small, unheated room originally serving as a kitchen. The hall features a large axial stack backing onto the passage, with a newel stair turret projecting to the rear. A second axial stack is situated between the two service rooms at the western end. A smaller, unheated dairy projects at a right angle in front of the kitchen. The house likely began as an open-hall house in the early or mid-16th century, possibly heated by an open hearth. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the late 16th century, and the house was subsequently floored over. The service rooms were refurbished in the late 19th century and may have been extended, with a secondary outshot added to the rear. The main block and dairy are two storeys high.

The exterior presents an irregular four-window front with late 19th and 20th-century casement windows with glazing bars. The central front doorway now has a 20th-century door. The roof is half-hipped at each end, while the dairy block has a lower, hipped roof.

Inside, the hall features a likely late 16th-century granite ashlar fireplace with a soffit-chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel. Evidence suggests a contemporary chamber over the passage, which jettied into the lower end of the hall, flush with the chimneybreast. An oak plank-and-muntin screen, with chamfered muntins featuring step stops on both sides, is located at the upper end of the hall; the screen is tall enough to accommodate a bench below. The joists in the kitchen are also soffit-chamfered with step stops. The hall was floored in the early or mid-17th century with an ovolo-moulded crossbeam with chamfer-step stops. The oak doorframe to the newel stair is likely contemporary, ovolo-moulded with urn stops, and contains an ancient plank door. The service rooms reflect their late 19th-century refurbishment. The roof was not inspected, but it is believed to be early, possibly late medieval.

A narrow strip of front garden is bordered by a late 19th-century stone rubble wall. Upperton Farmhouse is an attractive farmhouse with limited 20th-century modernization, though many early features are likely concealed by 19th-century plaster.