Birds Farmhouse

Birds Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating back to around the 15th century, with later remodelling in the 19th century and an extension in the mid-19th century. The exterior is a mix of rendered cob and painted stone rubble, topped with a slate roof and gabled ends. It features brick chimney stacks from the 19th century.

The house originally comprised two rooms and a cross-passage, with a straight staircase added in the 19th century to widen the passage. A cider house from around the mid-19th century is located at the east end, incorporating a possible original room. A wing was added behind the westernmost room in the mid-19th century, and an outshut behind the easternmost room.

The south front is asymmetrical and features three windows. There are 20th-century casement windows and a large late-19th-century canted bay window. The central doorway has a panelled and glazed door with a 20th-century glazed porch. A projecting stair turret on the left (west) side has a small window facing forward. The right (east) side has a lower roofline over the cider house, and an external oven projects from the left (west) end. The rear (north) side includes a gable-ended wing from the mid-19th century with sash windows, and an outshut with a catslide roof on the left.

Inside, the room on the right (east) has a moulded plaster ceiling cornice and a rose dating from the mid-19th century. The cross-passage/entrance hall features a 19th-century straight staircase with a simple balustrade consisting of chamfered stick balusters and tapered newels. The left (west) room has a 20th-century fireplace within a blocked fireplace, deeply chamfered ceiling beams, a cupboard door to the side of the stack, and a door to winder stairs within the front turret. Plank and panelled doors are typical of the 19th century. A bracketed shelf is above the fireplace in the rear wing, and a Victorian grate is located in the room above.

Remarkably, two bays of a fine 15th-century roof remain, with jointed-cruck collar trusses. The central truss has chamfered arch-braces, three tiers of curved wind-braces (the lower tier is missing), and intermediate trusses with cusped principals. Further bays originally extended to the west and east, where purlins continue and a wind-brace on the end truss has been truncated. The roof structure appears not to have been smoke-blackened.

Birds Farmhouse is a good example of a multi-phase Somerset vernacular house, notable for the survival of two bays of a fine 15th-century roof structure.