Rora Farmhouse

Rora Farmhouse is a 16th-century or possibly earlier farmhouse, substantially altered and extended. The building has a roughcast exterior with a stone ground storey and cob upper storey, though the upper part of the left-hand gable and probably the right-hand gable have been rebuilt in stone. The roof is thatched and half-hipped. The upper storey of the entrance porch is timber-framed.

The rear wall features a large projecting chimneystack built of big granite blocks with a late 19th or early 20th-century red brick shaft on top and a rounded oven projection at its base. The right-hand gable wall and rear wall of the lean-to have a yellow brick stack of late 19th or early 20th-century date. A lean-to addition has been made at the rear.

The building is two storeys with a four-window front, though the right-hand bay now lacks a second storey window. The windows contain 19th or early 20th-century wood casements with 2, 3 or 6 panes per light, except the left-hand ground storey window which has no glazing bars. An open-fronted porch in the second bay from the right has stone side-walls and a timber-framed upper storey with close-studding beneath plaster, weathered as if originally exposed. A plank door sits within the porch. A large buttress appears against the right-hand gable.

The plan comprises three rooms with a through passage and a narrow unheated inner room. A fireplace occupies the rear wall of the hall, and a two-storey entrance porch stands in front.

Interior features have largely preserved their 19th-century character with irregular plaster wall surfaces. The through-passage retains part of a 16th or 17th-century timber-framed partition on the hall side. The hall has a chamfered upper floor beam with large convex stops, laid parallel to the ridge. At the upper end is a large carved wooden console, probably of early or mid 17th-century date. A plank-and-muntin screen with chamfered studs having straight-cut stops separates the hall from the inner room; the studs are plain on the reverse side facing the inner room. Just in front of the screen on the hall side, a slight ceiling projection possibly covers an internal jetty from a medieval open hall.

The fireplace in the rear wall has monolithic granite jambs, chamfered with worn pyramid stops at the foot. The lintel is set high and plastered in, though the owner reports a massive granite piece beneath. A shaped wooden bracket projects from the wall just under the ceiling, probably supporting the hearth of a late 16th or 17th-century fireplace on the upper floor.

The second storey is open to the collar ties, though timber partition and roof members are mostly plastered in. The roof apex is not accessible, and the owner recalls no smoke-blackened thatch during re-thatching. The partition between rooms over the lower room and through-passage is fixed to a closed truss; the soffit of its tie-beam, where a door has been cut, shows pointed stake-holes for wattle and daub. The partition between rooms over the passage and hall is not fixed to a truss and has a similar horizontal timber with round stake-holes beneath and fragments of pegged studwork at a lower level. This partition also appears to contain two moulded door jambs now concealed under wallpaper. The room over the hall has a plastered roof truss with curved feet to the principal rafters, which must be either raised or jointed crucks.