Leigh Farmhouse With Range Of Outbuildings Forming Courtyard On North Front

A farmhouse, now divided, dating from the late medieval period. It was ceiled in the 16th century and significantly enlarged in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, with an additional bay added to the east, a dairy and cellar to the north, and a range of outbuildings forming a courtyard on the north front. The farmhouse was altered in the 19th century and the mid-20th century.

The farmhouse is largely constructed of roughcast cob, with a painted brick gable end on the right return and a wing at the rear. The left return is of rubble and the rear wing has a triple Roman tiled roof. Brick stacks project from the gable ends, with stone bases on the left (early 18th century) and the right, and between the first and second bays on the left side of the main range. The original plan may have been a double-ended open hall house with a byre adjoining the west side, on a sloping site. A dairy was originally located in the south-west corner, which was later demolished. The house was extended one room east with a dairy to the north-east. The entrance was subsequently resited in a former inner room, and a stair was inserted through a blocked doorway of what was once a cross passage.

The farmhouse is two storeys and has a 1:3 bay arrangement. The gable end of the former dairy is on the left, buttressed and unlit. It has 20th-century casement windows. The entrance is located between the first and second bays on the right, with a half-glazed door on the rear elevation. A pointed arch, chamfered doorframe marks the location of the former cross passage, with a tiny stair light to the left and a 2-light, hollow-chamfered mullioned window beyond. A small glazed opening provides access to a former curing chamber in the gable end.

A range of outbuildings, timber framed with brick nogging, abuts the north-east dairy wing, forming a courtyard. These buildings have chert random rubble exterior walls and a triple Roman tiled roof that continues to form a porch at the gable end.

Inside, a plank and muntin screen remains visible in the former kitchen, exposing the cross passage. There’s a chamfered lintel with a bread oven projection and a former curing chamber to the side. The entrance is now accessed through a room whose original purpose is uncertain. The hall fireplace has been blocked, with a plinth visible in the rear wall of the cross passage. A former stair in the rear wall has been removed. The interior features stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, a chamfered wooden lintel to a bedroom fireplace, a small pivot peg cupboard beside it, and remains of plaster moulding. Evidence of a smoke-blackened jointed cruck truss roof is present.