Garnett House, with attached walls, gate piers and steps

Garnett House

A farmhouse of 18th-century date that incorporates a 16th-century front range and a medieval tower, constructed of stone rubble with rendered sections and slate roofs.

The roughly square house sits at an elevated position at the head of the farmyard, facing south. The western part is slightly recessed. The structure comprises rectangular front and rear ranges, each containing two rooms with a stair hall to the rear. The south-east section of the front range is a two-storey thick-walled building interpreted as a tower.

The two-storey south elevation features four first-floor windows of varying sizes beneath a pitched roof of graduated slate with end chimney stacks. The irregular ridge line suggests the presence of an early roof structure. All windows are small-pane replacement casement frames. There is a shallow step back in the elevation between the second and third windows. Stone steps lead up to a central entrance with a timber Gothic porch, flanked by large window openings with stone sills and drip moulds. A small single-storey pitched-roof range is attached to the left and set back, its south elevation largely rebuilt. The rendered east gable is blind except for a single inserted first-floor window and has a broad chimney stack at the apex. A steep roof-line scar indicates the former presence of a now-demolished east wing. The rear range has a single first-floor window, and the left gable contains a tall chimney stack whose rubble stonework is integral to the gable. The two-storey rear range displays windows to both floors with stone sills and lintels. The rear elevation is an asymmetrical gable with a chimney stack at the apex, pitched to the right and dropping steeply to the left in a cat-slide roof form. It is mostly blind with scattered fenestration to the left part.

Internally, the evolved plan remains legible despite inserted partitions and ensuite bathrooms. The ground-floor south-west room of the front range contains a six-panel door adapted with half panels, two substantial ceiling beams (one boxed-in, the other with moulded plaster coving continuing along the south wall), and a simple stone fireplace flanked by a cupboard with double three-panel doors of 17th-century date. The adjacent passage features similar plaster coving along the south and east walls, indicating the south-west room was originally larger and that the west wall of the passage is an insertion. The ground-floor south-east room is accessed through an opening more than a metre deep in the wall thickness, fitted with a six-panel door of 17th-century form. This room has a central chimney breast with a deep cupboard within the wall thickness, and is panelled with four rows of small-panel panelling thought to be 16th-century in date. A cupboard in the north-west corner has a 10-panel timber door. Above the fireplace is a short timber beam with chamfer stops at each end, supporting a first-floor fireplace.

The ground-floor rear range comprises a north-west room with a single ceiling beam and two plank doors, its south wall (the original external wall of the front range) bearing a beam with a pair of corbels. The north-east room, a former dairy or buttery, is entered through a door of three wide planks and contains a pair of ceiling beams with stone window cills. An enclosed timber dog-leg stair occupies the rear of the passage, with a stone-flagged floor beneath and a re-used eight-panel door with associated panelling. The stair spandrel is similarly panelled with some original stick balusters and a moulded handrail to the first straight flight remaining; the remainder of the balustrade is a modern replacement.

The first-floor rear range has exposed waney timber structure of the cat-slide roof in the north-east room, and the north-west room is entered through an 18th-century six-panel door. The first-floor front range, south-east room is now subdivided and retains a timber mullioned window and lintel at present floor level through the original rear wall, and a window opening through its east wall. A substantial chimney breast stands immediately to the right, with a crude pointed-arched opening within the wall thickness beside it. A cupboard within the south wall may be associated with a possible garderobe in this location. The south-west room is partitioned into two; its western part contains a fireplace within the thickness of the east wall, a small room within the south wall, and a timber floor-boarded floor with some early wide boards.

The property includes curving dry stone garden walls to the front of the house, with a central opening flanked by piers and reached by stone steps.