Lake Farmhouse

Lake Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from the late 16th or early 17th century, with alterations made in 1661. It is constructed of granite rubble with a thatched roof, and corrugated iron coverings to shippons on the right side. A granite chimney stack, originally serving a former hall, rises from the ridge, featuring weatherings, one of which is within the roof space due to a roof raising. A red brick shaft is added on top of the chimney. A C18 or C19 granite stack is present in the right-hand gable wall. The plan features two rooms to the left of a cross-passage, with a second cross-passage situated between them. A two-storeyed entrance porch is positioned in the main cross-passage, incorporating a small room to the left. Rounded stair turrets are located at the rear of each room. To the right of the main cross-passage is a small, unheated room, beyond which are two shippons. While a solid wall separates the room from the shippons at ground floor level, there is no evidence of a former doorway between them.

The farmhouse is two storeys high and has five windows across the front. Most windows are C19 wood casements with glazing-bars. The porch, in the fourth bay from the left, has a round-arched doorway framed in carved granite. This doorway exhibits primitive raised decoration in the spandrels, bearing the initials “TH” and the date 1661. To the left of the doorway is a small, rectangular window with a hollow-moulded granite surround. The inner doorway has a chamfered stone surround with a cranked head. The shippons have two doorways with plank doors fitted with old wrought-iron strap hinges. A small, unglazed window sits between the shippon doorways. The right-hand gable has a plank door providing access to the loft, also with wrought iron strap hinges; a slit window is positioned below this, and there are two further windows on the rear wall.

The interior features lightly-chamfered upper floor beams, and the former hall displays chamfered and stopped joists. The hall fireplace backs onto the passage, with a heavy wooden lintel and oven contained within a stone-framed opening with an arched head. The left-hand staircase has winding stone steps. The shippons, separated by a stone wall at ground floor level, both have central drains. The left-hand shippon contains stones defining a feeding trough along its front and back walls, with some stones appearing to have shallow holes on top, potentially for tethering posts. The roofs were all rebuilt in softwood during the late 19th or early 20th century. Originally, Lake Farmhouse contained panelling believed to have come from Spitchwick Chapel; this is now located at Sandridge in Stoke Gabriel parish.