Kipscombe Farmhouse And Adjoining Outbuildings And Barn With Shippon

Kipscombe Farmhouse is a building of probable mid-17th century origin, with alterations and additions from the mid- to late-18th century and mid- to late-19th century. It is situated alongside outbuildings, a barn, and a shippon. The farmhouse is rendered over coursed sandstone rubble with a gable-end slate roof, which is half-hipped to the right (north) side. It features two brick stacks, with the others being rendered. The adjoining barn and outbuildings are constructed of uncoursed sandstone rubble, with some red brick dressings, and have gable-ended slate and corrugated-asbestos roofs.

The farmhouse likely began as a three-room-and-cross-passage plan. This original layout consisted of a hall with an axial stack to the right, backing onto what was probably a former cross-passage where a staircase was inserted in the 19th century. There is a lower room to the right with a lateral stack to the rear, and a small, unheated room to the left (south), which was later used as a dairy. An additional room was added at first-floor level into the hillside to the left, with an integral end stack. A further 18th-century one-room wing was added to the front (east) of the hall, also with an integral end stack. A low one-storey outbuilding projects in front of the lower room, and a 6-bay barn with a shippon extends at right angles to the rear (west) of the lower end.

The east-facing front of the farmhouse exhibits an asymmetrical facade with two storeys and a one-storey first-floor addition to the left. It has 19th-century two- and three-light wooden casement windows. A 19th-century or 20th-century half-glazed door is located centrally to the right. The addition to the left has a 19th-century wooden casement to the left and a 19th- or 20th-century half-glazed door to the right, with a late-20th-century glazed porch. A projecting kitchen wing to the front includes a two-light wooden casement on the gable-end and a small first-floor wooden casement, along with a 20th-century glazed door. First and ground-floor casements are present in the left-hand return front. The right-hand gable-end of the main range displays a 19th-century two-light wooden casement on the first floor, a 20th-century two-light wooden casement on the ground floor, and a boarded basement door with a wooden lintel. The left-hand gable-end of the main range has a 19th-century boarded door.

The barn and shippon, facing north, have a boarded loft door with a flat stone arch and a four-pane loft casement with a segmental stone-arched head. Ground-floor boarded doors flank a central window opening, all with segmental brick-arched heads. A wide 20th-century opening has been inserted in the ground floor to the right, with a steel lintel. The rear of the barn features a central pair of large boarded doors, accompanied by short flanking walls and a pent roof.

Inside the farmhouse, the hall contains deep-chamfered cross-beams and an old open fireplace with a bread oven and a 20th-century wooden lintel. The interior of the barn and shippon includes a 6-bay roof with collar trusses and pairs of purlins; stalls are located within the shippon below. The rest of the interior was not inspected during the survey in July 1987.