Lower Clayhanger Farmhouse

Lower Clayhanger Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating possibly from the 16th century, with significant alterations in the 17th century, re-roofing in the early 19th century, and a refaced east gable end. The west gable end was rebuilt in the late 20th century. The farmhouse is constructed of roughcast over rubble, with the east gable end featuring dressed and coursed chert and local limestone. It has a slate roof with Roman tiles, decorative ridge tiles in the wing, and a shallower pitch on the rear span. The roof is supported by roughcast stacks at the gable ends and to the left of the entrance, with a stone stack at the south end of the wing.

The farmhouse has a ‘U’ plan, originally consisting of three cells and a cross passage facing south, with a north-west wing and a later south-west addition. It is two storeys high with five bays, featuring Ham stone mullioned windows. The first floor has three 3-light ovolo moulded mullioned windows with hood moulds touching the eaves, one 3-light hollow chamfered window below the eaves with a hoodmould, and an ovolo moulded window in the end bay to the right, also below the eaves and without a hoodmould. The ground floor has two 3-light and one 4-light ovolo moulded mullioned windows to the left, separated by a stepped buttress with a continuous hoodmould. Raking buttresses flank the plank front door, and a 4-light ovolo moulded window is located in the end bay to the right, with a hoodmould and raking buttress. The left return has 20th-century windows in the gable end. The two-bay wing features 2-light windows on the first floor, a 4-light ovolo moulded window on the ground floor to the left, a hollow chamfered window with an inserted door to the right, and another 4-light ovolo moulded window on the first floor of the north gable end.

Internally, a doorway between the through passage and the kitchen is said to have a depressed 4-centred arch. The kitchen has a bread oven and an iron door by Wightman and Denning of Chard. A blocked 3-light octagonal wooden mullioned window in the rear wall is obscured by an inserted straight stair. A peaked head is present at the rear doorway from the through passage. A curved head is at the doorway from the through passage to the hall. There are beams with run-out stops, and an early 19th-century tusk tenoned purlin roof.