Hill Farmhouse, Including Former Linhay About 10 Metres South East Of The Farmhouse

Hill Farmhouse, including former linhay about 10 metres south-east of the farmhouse

Farmhouse of 16th century date, or possibly earlier, enlarged in the 17th century with later additions at the rear. The walls are of solid roughcast, except for the left-hand former stable section where the front and gable walls are of exposed Devonian limestone. The rear wall of this section and much of the rear wall of the middle section are of cob; the whole front wall may have been rebuilt in stone in the 19th century. The roof is thatched, except for the former stable which is covered with corrugated iron and hipped at its left-hand end. The right-hand gable contains a large projecting 17th-century rendered chimneystack with a projecting slate-course just below the top, forming a cap. A second stack in the rear wall, which heated the former hall, has 19th-century shafts above roof level.

The building follows a 3-room and through-passage plan, modified in the 19th century. The hall occupies the centre with a fireplace in the rear wall. The former kitchen is at the upper end, an unusual arrangement that appears to result from a 17th-century rebuilding or addition, evidenced by a straight joint in the rear wall and a change in roof structure. At the lower end is the former stable, which was never heated and may well have been a shippon, suggesting this was originally a longhouse. The stable shares an early roof with the house, and although the two sections are separated by a stone wall on the ground storey, the division on the upper floor and in the roof-space is only a lath and plaster partition. In the 19th century, a new entrance with a passage leading to a staircase at the rear was inserted between hall and kitchen, reducing the original entrance to the status of a stable door. Behind the house and stable is a line of lean-tos of uncertain date; that behind the stable was a dairy.

The building is two storeys high. The front to the 19th-century house has four windows and one window in the former stable. The house windows are 19th-century 2-light wood casements with three panes per light, except for the left-hand ground storey window, which is 20th-century, having been converted from a former doorway. In the second bay from the right is the 19th-century doorway, with a door having two flush panels below and an inserted 20th-century glazed panel above. A thatched brick porch with wooden seats internally at either side frames this entrance. The former stable section to the left has the original doorway at its right-hand end, featuring a plank door with strap hinges, the upper half opening separately, and a 20th-century thatched wood porch. To its left are two 20th-century windows, and in the second storey is another 20th-century window with glazing bars, probably replacing an old loft door. In the right-hand gable, in the second storey, is a 2-light wood-mullioned window of late 18th or early 19th-century date, retaining square leaded panes tied to upright bars in the centre of each light. In the rear wall, concealed by the roof of the lean-to, is a 2-light wood-mullioned window of the late 16th or early 17th century, having flat-splay mullions and appearing not to have been designed for glazing.

The interior retains much of its 19th-century character, with irregular wall and ceiling plaster. The former hall has an ovolo-moulded upper floor-beam and a similar half-beam against the wall with through-passage; one raised run-out stop is visible. The fireplace was rebuilt in the 20th century. The former kitchen has a large gable fireplace with a chamfered wood lintel having scroll-stops; an oven at the back has a rectangular stone surround to its opening. The former stable retains a wooden trough and hayracks along the rear wall, hidden behind a 20th-century partition. The dairy has a good plank door with a wooden lock.

The roof structure retains four side-pegged jointed-cruck trusses with threaded purlins and ridge, with cambered collars. In the 19th-century house end, which contains two of the trusses, the lower parts of the front blades have been cut off, and one truss has lost its collar. These two trusses, together with the purlins, ridge and common rafters, are darkened, as if by smoke from an open hearth, though the underside of the thatch is not blackened. Over the former stable, the trusses are perfectly clean, suggesting that this end of the building was always divided from the rest by a full-height partition. At the upper end, the purlins and ridge have been sawn off level with the partition between the former kitchen and staircase; the principal rafters beyond this point have plain feet, but the upper parts are not accessible.

Opposite the house, and included in the listing, is a former linhay with a rear wall of cob and a front wall infilled with brick. The roof trusses have struts pegged to the feet of the principal rafters at the front. The principal rafters are re-used, bearing slots for the shaped ends of halved collars just below the ridge. The house and its farm buildings have high visual quality when seen from the old A38.