Middle Hole

The building is a former farmhouse, dating to around the mid-17th century, with 20th-century renovations. It is constructed of rendered cob on stone footings, with a slate roof, and has projecting end stacks with granite shafts. The original layout comprised three rooms and a cross passage, with the passage situated to the left of centre. The outer rooms are heated by end stacks and each incorporates a "newel stair in a stair outshut" at the rear, to the left and right respectively. The centre room, to the right of the passage, is unheated; it may have originally contained a timber-framed stack against the right-hand wall, as suggested by the pattern of joists, and was later reduced to a service room. C20 renovations include the reconstruction of the partition wall between the cross passage and centre room.

The exterior has an asymmetrical five-window front. A flight of wide stone steps leads to a 19th-century front door, introduced from elsewhere, which opens into the passage to the left of centre. The original "wall on either side" of the steps, mentioned in an older listing description, no longer exists. A variety of small timber casement windows are present; those in the centre room are unusually small.

Inside, a solid cross wall exists to the left of the passage, with a 17th-century chamfered oak doorframe leading to the left-hand room. A late 20th-century partition wall is located to the right. The centre room features one exposed chamfered cross beam with "step nick stops". Joists are concealed, but are said to have been chamfered on one side of the crossbeam and moulded on the other, with a configuration against the right-hand wall possibly indicating a former timber-framed stack. The right-hand room has a chamfered cross beam with bar stops and an open fireplace with chamfered granite jambs and an ovolo-moulded oak lintel. A late 17th-century panelled door leads to a stair turret containing a timber stair. The left-hand room also has a similar crossbeam with chamfered joists; these have "runout stops" on the fireplace side and shallow cyma reversa mouldings on the passage side. An open fireplace, partly bricked-in with a chamfered lintel, is present. A granite axial passage runs through the building, and a small fireplace with an ovolo-moulded lintel is found in the right-hand room. No access was possible to the roofspace at the time of the 1987 survey, but straight principal rafters were visible from upstairs. A cottage adjoining the right end, and originally a barn, has been converted and is not included in the listing.