Pigeon Hill Farmhouse

Pigeon Hill Farmhouse is a 15th-century house of cross-passage type with an open hall that has since been floored over, extended southward at a later date. The attached agricultural buildings are not included in this listing.

The farmhouse is built of rubble sandstone with large stone quoins and is roofed with clay tiles on a hipped frame, featuring two brick chimney stacks. It stands on a north-south alignment across two storeys.

The exterior displays asymmetrical fenestration across its east and west elevations, with window and door openings of various dates. Many openings have cambered-brick or concrete heads and lintels; most frames are 20th-century casements. The east elevation has a ground-floor door at the north end, followed by two windows (the southern one at the probable former cross-passage entry), then another door and a blocked window further south. Above are three flat-roof dormers with an additional window. The west elevation has a pair of French windows at the south end, a door at the former cross-passage location, two further ground-floor windows, and four first-floor windows. The south elevation shows two ground-floor and one first-floor window, with tiled cladding at first-floor level. The north elevation is blank and largely concealed by an attached cart shed.

Inside, the ground floor retains the cross-passage plan with a later southern extension. The north end (former upper end) now serves as a kitchen. A plastered partition with posts and a 20th-century door marks the passage into the former open hall. An internal jetty with round-end jetty joists and jetty plate runs along the northern wall; later ceiling joists have been inserted above. The southern wall contains a large brick inglenook fireplace with an eastern bread oven (the stove is 20th-century); above it is the blocked opening of an earlier chimney hood. An off-centre plank door accesses the cross-passage. The brick fireplace back with substantial stone quoins runs along the north side of the passage. In the west wall beside the stairway are deeply-chambered stone returns of the cross-passage southern doorway with a timber lintel. The former timber-frame passage screen on the south side is partially removed; surviving fragments at the west end include the top arch of a former doorway. Only the top timber beam survives further east, at its centre displaying the tops of a pair of ogee arches flanking a central timber key (remains of two screen doors) with truss-brace bases at either end. The former lower end to the south now contains a later partitioned bathroom. The south-end bay's ground-floor room sits at a lower level with a 20th-century fireplace in the south-west chimney stack.

A straight-flight pine staircase runs up the west wall's centre to the first floor, which comprises a row of rooms accessed by an off-centre hall. Several wide timber floorboards exist at this level, with the floor over the former hall room sitting higher than the flanking floors. Stone walls are topped by exposed wall plates. Three principal crown-post trusses rise within: the north-end truss has a straight tie beam; the truss over the former open hall features an arched-brace tie (its eastern brace survives) with smoke blackening visible; a cast-iron fireplace is set into the brick stack on the hall truss's side. A plank door with strap hinges within a later partition (possibly reused from elsewhere) provides access, alongside 20th- and 19th-century doors. The south truss has a straight tie with exposed timber framing including studs and an arched brace. The south-end bay has a higher ceiling and thinner floorboards, with later timber posts supporting the ceiling.