Great Abbey Farmhouse including front garden wall

Great Abbey Farmhouse

This is a two-storey house built of rubble stone with slate roofs and stone end stacks topped with slate tabling. The front elevation is broad, featuring a four-window range of renewed horned sash windows with slate or concrete sills. The right side of the front wall was rebuilt in the 19th century reusing old stone, creating a visible straight joint at first floor level. The first floor has a 12-pane sash to the left, 16-pane windows in the second and fourth bays, and a revealing absence of a window in the third bay (though a window reveal survives internally). The left windows have cut limestone heads, while the right window in the rebuilt section has a yellow brick head. The ground floor features a central door positioned in the second bay, with a 12-pane window to the left. Both the door and left window display cut limestone voussoirs, presumably original, whereas the two 16-pane windows to the right have 19th-century yellow brick heads. A 20th-century door with slate threshold has replaced the original. The windowless south end wall contains two shallow outsteps in its structure—one near the southwest corner and another near the southeast corner—indicating a complex building history. The north end gable is windowless except for a renewed 16-pane horned sash to the left, set in the side of the rear stair gable.

The rear elevation displays two parallel gables with apexes that were replaced in the late 20th century. The broader stair gable to the right appears to be a reconstruction of a narrower original structure that was initially separate from and later than the gable to the left, with an infill section joining them (evidenced by a visible line to the left of a low door). This door is flanked by two small windows. The first floor has two 12-pane horned sashes, one set higher in the infill to the left and the other centrally positioned, with the rebuilt gable containing a 12-pane sash. The door and first floor windows feature limestone voussoirs. The possibly earlier centre gable has renewed 16-pane horned sashes on the ground and first floors, with a 12-pane window in the rebuilt attic gable; the first floor window retains limestone voussoirs. The left return is windowless, as is the rear wall of the main house to the left, which shows a straight joint and incorporates a reused pair of roundels from the abbey. Similar reused roundels appear on the south return of the gable. Other incorporated fragments include a shaft within the right side of the left gable and a quoin in the left side of the right gable.

The front garden wall is constructed of rubble stone with rounded limestone coping probably salvaged from Abbey buildings. The gatepiers are topped with caps incorporating reused sections of wall piers, and a simple railing gate is attached.

Interior

The ground floor has notably low ceilings. A broad entrance hall with stone flags contains partitions on each side. The northern room features a very large fireplace with a spit-rack above and three massive covered beams; the ceiling is in poor repair, and the worn stone slab flooring is original. A four-panel door provides access.

The southern room is lined with large fielded panels on three sides. Above the fireplace is a painted panel, and to the left stands a substantial cupboard with fielded panelled doors—two below and one larger door with a shouldered arched head above—fitted with curved shelves inside. The painting depicts Youth standing on a box, being tempted by a semi-naked woman on the right with a bearded face and asses' ears, holding a pleasant mask before her face, with a cello at her side. Two bearded figures appear to the left, one holding a Bible. The inscription beneath Youth's feet was read by G.E. Evans as "When Virtue and Vice / Youth doth woo / tis hard to say / Which way he'll go." The panelling and painting appear to date from the early 18th century. The ceiling is apparently modern pine, beneath which lie original square oak joists. Window seats occupy the reveals.

The rear centre gable contains a small altered room. A stairwell to the rear northeast, accessed from the back hallway and probably an early 18th-century addition, features an open-well wide oak staircase with closed string, shallow steps, turned balusters, moulded rail, and plain square newels. Fire damage is evident on the banister. The staircase rises to a half-landing with short rail, then a second flight to just below the first floor, followed by a short flight up to a landing with balustrade. A third flight is blocked after one turn and two additional steps; a fourth flight to the attic was removed following fire damage, when the gable (subsequently reinstated) was temporarily replaced by a flat roof.

The first floor bedrooms feature six covered beams and floors with a heavy slant towards the front of the house. The front wall of the south room shows a window that is now filled in. A wall cupboard with panelled doors occupies the southwest corner. The roof is not accessible.