Ffarm

Ffarm is a country house in the Venetian Gothic style, built around an irregular U-shaped plan enclosing a small rear service court. The main facades are constructed of roughly-squared limestone blocks randomly set, with fine sandstone dressings, a chamfered plinth, and slate roofs with plain rectangular chimneys. The front and side elevations feature crenellated battlements corbelled in the manner of machicolations.

The asymmetrical northeast-facing entrance facade comprises three bays. The central section and slightly recessed left bay are of two storeys, while the flush right bay rises to three storeys and has a square battlemented turret at its left corner rising to a further storey and flush with the facade. The entrance occupies the central bay, consisting of a central entrance with flanking pairs of single-light tracery windows forming a five-bay sandstone entrance group. The entrance is stepped-up and features a basket arch with a blind, recessed panel above and boarded doors. Flanking the entrance are applied shafts with fine foliated capitals and shaft-rings. The flanking windows have tall tracery heads with Venetian-style tracery in imitation of the Doges Palace; the inner ones display complex vinescroll carving forming a frieze around the sides and top, with shafts and capitals matching those of the entrance. Above the entrance group is a canted oriel window with moulded base and similar sandstone tracery, flanked by tall single-light windows with matching tracery. The flush right-hand bay continues this theme with four-light tracery windows to the ground and first floors and a group of three pointed-arched windows to the second floor, these having moulded labels joined at the returns. The recessed left-hand section has a large canted bay to the ground floor with a three-light mullioned and transomed window to the front and single-light returns, topped by a crenellated parapet to the flat roof. Above this is a further three-light mullioned and transomed window with a moulded and returned label with the quirky label stops in characteristic Lloyd Williams and Underwood style.

The southeast-facing left side has an advanced left-hand section, the right-hand bay of which contains a square castellated porch with a boarded door within. Above this is a three-light mullioned and transomed window. The recessed bay to the right has a cross-window to the ground floor and a transomed window to the first floor, both with labels as before. The parapet steps up over the porch bay and features a tripartite framed niche with a shaped centre and returned label; the label bears the incised initials 'JEO' and the date 1881. Within the central shaped niche is a sandstone shield inscribed with the date 1706 and the initials EHM. Beyond this, to the left, the crenellations are discontinued, though the corbelling remains. This section contains simple one, two and three-light mullioned windows and a boarded door with a two-light overlight to the far left.

The northwest-facing right side features single-light arched, cusped Gothic windows to the second floor and the first bay of the first floor; the remaining windows are plain two-part windows with limestone reveals. The ground floor has a tripartite wooden mullioned and transomed window with a relieving arch, and a modern corrugated iron and timber lean-to addition to the left. Where the wall returns and continues into the hillslope, an external modern stair provides access to a second-floor entrance. Beyond this is a Tudor-arched entrance of tooled limestone giving first-floor gallery access to the small service court, featuring a Tudor-arched sandstone recess above with a plain shield and flanking Early English-style shafts and abaci. Beyond the arch is an open upper gallery walk with plain railings and steps down to the service court at the left. The range to the right, closing the service court to the rear, is modern.

The interior features a large entrance hall with a stone inner porch and decorative crenellated battlements. The wide galleried staircase displays bizarre eclectic Gothic design with a cusped, pierced tracery balustrade consisting of elongated quatrefoils and trefoils alternately, constructed of pitch pine with a simple oak rail. The gallery has a moulded beamed ceiling with boarding laid in a chevron pattern.