Berth las

Berth las is a timber-framed farmhouse of one-and-a-half storeys with three windows, dating from the medieval or early post-medieval period. The building features a lobby-entrance positioned to the right of centre.

The front elevation displays quality timber-framing. To the left of the entrance are three tiers of good-quality box-panelling on a stone plinth, with the panels plastered. The outer room to the right was rebuilt in small-scantling close-studding, arranged in two tiers and divided by a mid-rail, with tension braces. The roof is old slate with a renewed blue brick ridge stack. A gabled half-timbered porch with slate roof and cusped barge boards projects forward; it contains four-pane side-lights and a boarded door inside. The windows are small-pane oak casements, renewed in the late 20th century: a two-light casement to the right of the entrance, a pair of casements to the left (which replace a large Victorian window), and a single-light to the far left. The attic storey has two gabled dormers with weather-boarded gables and cusped barge boards, each containing an oak casement.

The north gable end (to the right) is constructed in small-scantling close studding with a tie-beam and collar to the gable. It has a single light to the ground floor and a two-light casement offset to the left at attic storey level. A shallow extension to the right uses similar close-studding with a raised roof pitch and contains a two-light casement to the ground floor. The rear (west) wall of this extension is of white-washed random stone with a two-light wooden casement and a skylight.

Adjoining to the right is a single-storey kitchen wing of white-washed random stone under a slate roof with a squat stone end stack. Its north side has a boarded door with small light and a six-pane window to the left; its south side has a two-light window. The rear wall of the main range, rebuilt in stone to the right of the kitchen wing, is exceptionally thick and contains a two-light window to the bathroom and a skylight. The south gable end of the main range is of brick with a two-light casement to the gable.

Interior

The lobby-entrance opens into a hall to the left and a parlour to the right. The hall contains a large fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel, with the flue now blocked; inside the fireplace is a tile floor and side benches. The hall is timber-framed with some outer posts still extant. Immediately to the left of the fireplace is a late 20th-century inserted straight timber stair. The ceiling has a medium-chamfered spine beam with ogee stops and plain joists. Beneath the modern timber floor, a pitched floor is preserved. Opposite the fireplace is a box-panelled partition, pegged and bearing carpenter's marks, with a boarded door on its left side leading to service rooms divided by a plastered partition.

The parlour has a small fireplace with timber lintel, representing an infill of an earlier larger fireplace. Its ceiling has two unchamfered spine beams, the western one with sockets. The added kitchen wing, reached from the hall, preserves the original external box-panelled wall, with some panels containing wattle infill. The kitchen is open to the roof and features a tie-beam truss with curved principals and two raked struts. A large fireplace at the end wall has a cambered timber lintel.

The upper storey retains an original tie-beam truss between the central and south units, with tie-beam, collar and two raked struts. Beneath this is a box-panelled partition with an integral central doorway. The central room has a good oak floor and a former stone fireplace now infilled. One of the purlins has been cut by the insertion of the dormers. The north truss, adjacent to the fireplace, was partly visible; the doorway formerly on the east side of the chimney is now positioned to the west, at the top of the staircase.