Rosebank

Rosebank is a small house with origins in the medieval period, significantly remodelled in the 17th century and with substantial renovations in the 20th century. The walls are primarily cob on stone rubble footings, with a whitewashed and rendered finish. The front wall has been rebuilt in concrete block, while the left gable end wall is brick. It has a thatched roof with gabled ends, a rendered stack on the left side, and an axial stack projecting through the roof to the rear of the ridge.

Originally, the house was a 3-room open hall house, with no evidence of a cross passage. An axial stack was inserted before the hall was ceiled over, and there’s evidence that this stack may have been timber-framed before the 20th-century renovations. The front door is located within a lobby, adjacent to a narrow winder staircase that abuts the axial stack. The 20th-century renovations involved replacing the roof and front wall, but the original internal partitions were preserved. A single-storey lean-to extends from the right end.

The house has an asymmetrical 4-window front, with a dormer window in the centre and eyebrowed thatch eaves. A 20th-century half-glazed front door sits to the right of centre. The windows are 20th-century replacements with glazing bars. A 2-pane casement window is located in the right gable at first-floor level.

Interior features from the 16th and 17th centuries remain on the ground floor. These include deeply chamfered cross beams with run-out stops in the hall, kitchen, and inner room. The hall features an open fireplace with stone rubble jambs, a chamfered stopped lintel, and a bread oven. A good oak plank and muntin screen with a moulded top rail and chamfered muntins, stopped off at hall bench level, divides the hall from the inner room. An original smoke-blackened medieval jointed cruck truss has been erected, with one original purlin intact, and is no longer load-bearing.

Despite the substantial 20th-century repairs, Rosebank is of group value as a small, 3-room building – a miniature version of the larger farmhouses in the region, and featuring a lobby entrance unusual in the county.