Paynes Farm Cottage

Paynes Farm Cottage is a farmhouse that has been converted into three dwellings. It dates back to the 16th century and has undergone several alterations, including the raising of the eaves in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of rendered cob and limestone rubble, topped with a gabled Welsh slate roof and features brick end and axial stacks. It has a three-unit plan with a through passage and has been extended to the front left in the early 19th century and to the right in the 17th century. The structure is two storeys high and has a five-window range. The windows include 20th-century half-glazed doors and casements, with three 19th-century casements featuring glazing bars on the first floor. There is a late 19th-century four-panelled door, two of which are glazed, leading to a lean-to on the left.

Inside, the long lower room to the left of the through passage has a deep fireplace that includes an oven, kiln, curing chamber, and a herringbone brick fireback. The fire bressummer shows housing for 16th-century joists, with the floor having been raised in the 18th century. The room also features plain 18th-century joists and beams, as well as a reset plank door. There are remains of an inserted fireplace to the right, which divides the lower room into two parts. The through passage has flanking chamfered beams. A 17th-century plank door leads to the hall, which contains a chamfered two-light wood-mullioned window to the rear, 16th-century quartered chamfered beams, and an open fireplace with half-pyramid stops on the stone jambs and brattishing on the moulded overmantle beam. The curing chamber at the rear of the hall stack is a rare example and features an arched and rebated wooden doorframe at first floor level. The stud partition to the inner room has an inserted chamfered and arched doorframe leading to the stairs, with a plank partition above it topped by a reset early 17th-century screen with turned balusters and carved lozenge panels. The building has jointed cruck trusses with lap-jointed collars and trenched through purlins. The cottage to the right has not been inspected but is noted to have a reset 16th-century beam and other features. The roof space could not be fully inspected.