Birchfield Farmhouse

This is a farmhouse, likely dating to the late 16th or early 17th century, with later additions and alterations in the 17th century and a substantial remodelling in the late 19th century. The main structure is built of squared coursed lias stone, with plastered and imitation timber framing on the gable ends. The roof is covered in machine tiles with gabled ends, and there are brick stacks at the axial and gable ends.

The original layout comprised a two-room lobby entrance plan, with a likely kitchen to the northeast and a smaller parlour to the southwest, both originally heated by a back-to-back fireplace in a central axial stack. In the 17th century, a single-room wing was added to the rear with its own gable end stack. Around the late 19th century, the house underwent significant remodelling, including the creation of a stairhall at the back of the parlour and a new entrance in the southwest gable.

The northwest front has two windows, and is asymmetrical. It features late 19th-century windows with chamfered stone mullions, two and three lights, and a chamfered doorway with a 20th-century panelled door. There are two casements with leaded panes in the northeast gable. The southeast rear elevation incorporates 20th-century casements and a French casement, along with a small 20th-century brick lean-to extension at the angle of the wing to the left, which has a two-light casement with leaded panes. The southwest elevation is gabled on the left and features late 19th-century, three-light stone mullion windows either side of a glazed door beneath a tiled canopy. A gabled dormer is present on each elevation.

Inside, the left-hand room retains a large chamfered cross-beam and two chamfered axial beams without stops. The right-hand room has a boxed-in axial beam. The rear wing has a chamfered axial beam with notched hollow step stops. Generally, the interior joinery is from the mid-to-late 19th century and includes panelled doors and a stick baluster staircase. The attic has plank doors. The original roof structure remains, including a large truss in the northeast with a tenoned collar and apex, and considerable trenched-out apertures for the diagonal ridge piece. Trusses are also present in the gable ends. Over the southwest end of the roof, the original rafters are present without a ridge purlin.