Lower Stoford Farmhouse, Wall, Gate-Piers And Boundary Wall Running North-South To The Refectory

A farmhouse of late 15th or early 16th-century date, remodelled later in the 16th century and early 17th century. The building is constructed of plastered and whitewashed stone rubble with possibly some cob, beneath a thatched roof with gabled and half-hipped ends. The rendered axial and gable end stacks have been heightened in brick.

The building follows a 3-room and through-passage plan facing south, with the lower end to the right (east). Originally, the hall and lower end room were open to the roof, both heated by open hearth fires and separated by closed trusses. The inner room was initially unheated and may have had a solar above. The first phase of remodelling involved the insertion of a hall axial stack backing onto the passage and the addition of a lower gable end stack, with the flooring of the lower end probably in the 15th century and possibly before the hall was floored in circa the early 17th century. A wing at the front of the lower end has been removed. An outbuilding behind the lower end now serves as the kitchen.

The building is 1 storey with attic space. The asymmetrical 5-window south front features 19th and 20th-century 3-light casements with leaded panes; first-floor windows are set in eyebrow half-dormers. A central doorway has an ovolo-moulded frame with an old studded plank door leading to the through passage, sheltered by a later thatched porch. A small early 2-light chamfered mullion window is positioned to the right, with a 3-light leaded pane window to the left. A projecting stair turret with a small 2-light chamfered window adjoins a long attached single-storey thatched-roof wing.

The right (east) gable end displays a 3-light chamfered first-floor window and a small pointed arch window below, opening to a curing chamber with an oven and kiln projecting on the left, both with thatched roofs.

The lower east end room contains a hollow chamfered cross-beam with step stops and a large fireplace with an oven and long chamfered lintel that continues over the curing chamber on the left and the corn-drying kiln on the right. The passage lower-side partition is plastered over but retains an exposed doorframe. The original passage-hall doorframe features a chamfered pointed arch. The hall contains a large fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel and moulded stone jambs, together with a framed ceiling decorated with moulded plaster featuring oak leaves, rosettes and strapwork motifs. A moulded plaster frieze above the fireplace displays oak leaf and diagonal strip flower sprays. The inner room has a replaced axial beam. A winder staircase rises from the hall, and solid baulk newel stairs in the turret vent to the smoking chamber.

The 5-bay medieval roof structure is complete and smoke-blackened from the open hearth fires in the hall and lower end. It comprises side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cranked collars, trenched purlins and a diagonal ridgepiece, complete with common rafters and some original wattle instead of battens over the lower end. The hall truss features chamfered arch braces. The hall-inner room and passage-lower end partitions are closed trusses, smoke blackened on all sides except on the inner room side.