Cockpit Hole Farmhouse and attached barn

Cockpit Hole Farmhouse and attached barn

This is a farmhouse with adjoining barn, the main house dating from the early 19th century and extended in the late 19th century with a connecting range to link it directly to the barn.

The house is built of coursed un-knapped flint with brick dressings and chimneys, and is roofed in pitched clay tiles. It stands two storeys high (with a cellar extending beneath the south-western half) and is rectangular in plan, facing north-west. A large end chimney stack rises at the south-western corner, with another projecting from the rear wall. At the north-eastern end, a projecting late-19th-century two-storey link range fills the space that originally separated the house from the barn, sharing its roofline. A chimney from the original house passes through the ridge at this junction. A small modern single-storey rear extension with weatherboarding and a flat roof has been added to the link range.

The principal north-west elevation displays three bays and is broadly symmetrical. It features rusticated brick quoins and a dog-tooth brick cornice. The centrally placed front entrance has a rusticated brick surround with a segmental arched lintel and a braced plank and batten door in a timber frame. A brick beside the door is inscribed with the initials 'EN' on one side and on the other the date 'SN 1834'. The two ground floor windows are tripartite, six-pane timber casements in rusticated brick surrounds with segmental arched lintels and brick stringcourse below. The two first floor windows are tripartite, single-pane timber casements in square-headed openings, similarly detailed with rusticated brick surrounds and stringcourse.

The late-19th-century link range projects forward with a single window in a square-headed opening with brick surround, tile sill and metal-framed triple casement. The upper floor is lit by a flat-roofed dormer with a double metal-framed casement. The southern return has been altered, with a brick segmental arch indicating a former doorway or window now blocked with flint and brickwork.

The rear south-east elevation has irregular fenestration. On the first floor is a single tripartite timber casement in a square-headed opening. Below this are two windows with segmental heads—the ground floor one with metal-framed casements and another lighting the cellar. On the opposite side of the chimney (which has corbelling below the eaves) is another ground floor window with metal-framed casements in a square opening, modified from its original segmental arched form. The link range has a pair of ground floor metal-framed casements (one now within the modern weatherboarded extension). A timber door on the first floor of the link range provides access to the fruit store.

The south-eastern end elevation displays a large projecting brick chimney rising from the gable with tiled slopes and a later additional flue.

Internally, the original house comprises two rooms—a kitchen to the north-east and a parlour to the south-west—divided by a small front entrance lobby and central staircase. The parlour features a chamfered spine beam, a four-panelled door, and matchboard panelling below the windows. There are two built-in cupboards: a two-panel cupboard beside the chimney breast and a two-stage corner cupboard under the stairs. The fireplace has a replacement timber surround with a mid-20th-century range inserted. The kitchen has a four-plank door to the stair lobby and a seven-plank door to the link range; original fittings have been replaced with late-20th-century ones and a modern stove. The room in the link range contains a 1930s brick fireplace. The bedrooms are plain with four-plank doors off the stairs, and no rooms have covings. The cellar is accessed by steps from the kitchen below the stairs. The south-eastern half of the first floor of the link range is occupied by a fruit store, accessed by ladder from outside.

The adjoining barn is timber-framed on a flint plinth, weatherboarded, and roofed in clay tiles. It comprises three bays with an aisle on the south-east side. The threshing door on the north-west elevation is boarded over, and only one of the pair of doors on the south-east side survives. The south-east aisle has a door at each end, the southern one being a modern replacement.

The barn interior retains queen-post trusses with original tie beams, posts, purlins, rafters, most wall posts, studs and corner bracing. However, many modern timbers have been inserted to strengthen the structure, including cross beams and alternate rafters. All rafters to the aisle are modern. The flint plinth has been replaced with modern brickwork in the north-west corner. The north-west side of the south-west bay retains half-height flint walling with brick quoins and a small window with brick jambs, now blocked by external weatherboarding. A blocked doorway exists in the later brick wall connecting to the link building. The two end bays have earthen floors whilst the central bay has a raised timber threshing floor with low timber partitions separating it from the outer bays.