Laws Farmhouse

Laws Farmhouse is a former farmhouse of 17th-century date, with mid-19th-century additions and 20th and early 21st-century alterations, located on Compton Street in Compton Dundon.

The building is constructed of coursed local lias stone with brick end stacks, a central ridge stack, and a further stack serving the outshut. The ridge stacks appear to have been largely rebuilt. The roof is clad with clay tiles, though it was formerly thatched. A lean-to against the east gable end has a slate roof. The windows and doors are late 20th and early 21st-century replacements.

The plan comprises two rooms with a cross passage, together with a former service room with a loft above in an outshut to the rear (north). The outshut was extended in the mid-19th century when a cider cellar was added at its west end. A single-storey lean-to, formerly a dairy, was added against the east gable.

On the south elevation, a central entrance door is now enclosed within a 20th-century porch, flanked by flat-headed window openings to the ground floor and smaller two-light windows at first floor. To the rear (north), a catslide roof of clay tiles covers the outshut, which has a central entrance door with two windows to either side. Built against the east elevation is a single-storey addition with a hipped slate roof, rendered walls, a late 20th-century window, and a doorway. The west gable wall has been rendered.

The cross passage retains a horizontal top rail to the left side and a short section of plank and muntin screen to the right, with a door at the north end featuring mid-17th-century strap hinges. The right-hand room contains a large inglenook fireplace with a chamfered timber bressumer on stone chamfered jambs, and a chamfered ceiling beam. In the outshut beyond is a further large open hearth with the south side composed of a single slab of stone. The room to the left of the passage has a 20th-century fireplace. At first floor, the east part has a moulded stone fireplace, chamfered ceiling, and a re-sited length of timber screen, while the west half contains a 19th-century fire surround. The roof structure comprises collared trusses with trenched purlins, though some purlins and rafters have been renewed. A modern roof has been superimposed over the historic timbers.

Documentary sources indicate a farm has existed on the site since the 14th century, when it formed part of the Milbourne Estate. The property was bought by the Strangways family in 1691. The name Laws is considered to derive from a family who occupied the property in the mid-18th century.