Aberdeunant

Aberdeunant is a vernacular farmhouse of exceptional architectural interest, combining 18th-century origins with later additions and alterations. The building is graded II* for its unusually well-preserved interior that retains the character of an 18th-century farmhouse, with very few alterations made around 1880.

The main structure comprises colourwashed roughcast over stone and clay, with a thatched roof. The walls are battered at 2 storeys, dropping to single-storey in a bay downhill of the main stack. Colourwashed rubble stone chimneys with slab drip-stones and slab cappings occupy each end of the main range. The western bay has a colourwashed brick western stack. A late 19th-century addition at the east end is built of colourwashed rubble stone with a corrugated iron roof. The thatched roofs have eaves sloping down over the western end bay and to the rear, with wide eaves throughout, all renewed since 1994.

The south front displays three small modern upper windows with recessed timber-frames to single sashes. The ground floor retains renewed 12-pane sashes on each side of the door, all with timber lintels. The fenestration is notably irregular in alignment: two upper windows are set to the right, one to the left is slightly lower, the ground floor right window aligns with the window above, and a blocked door was found beneath an adjoining window. The present door is set further left, central to the front, while the left window is set well to the left of the window above. The door is set deep and boarded. A second recessed door into the western room is positioned downhill to the left of the main chimney. The western end wall has a small casement pair to the right and a single loft light above. The late 19th-century addition to the right has a board door and window with flat brick heads; its eastern end wall is windowless.

The rear elevation is irregular and colourwashed, with a stair gable to the right of the main part, curved corner walling to the left, and an irregular angle to the right. A single small 4-pane first-floor window is visible. The rear wall of the main range to the left has even eaves and a single small 4-pane window. The western end section has a single small 4-pane window. The 19th-century upper end addition is windowless to the rear.

The interior is remarkably well-preserved and retains the character of an 18th-century farmhouse. The 18th-century modernisation brought alterations to the stair, the insertion of a small bedroom, a new entry, a fixed dresser, fielded panelled doors and cupboards.

The roof structure comprises five bays with 5 rough A-frame trusses, of which 4 are scarfed crucks. A large stepped rubble chimney-stack is inserted in the second bay. The second truss, backing onto the chimney, is arch-braced and could date to the 15th century, though it now lacks braces and its original collar. The third roof truss to the east of the chimney is a crude replacement, possibly installed when the stair was inserted. The fourth and fifth trusses have packing above to raise the roof. Stave rafters support woven hazel under bracken and wheat-straw thatch.

The turning masonry stair flanks the great chimney stack and projects through the rear wall. The kitchen features chamfered main beams and a chamfered bressumer over a later grate, iron oven and fireplace surround (Coalbrookdale make). A spit-rack with curved ends and moulded cornice is set against a half-beam above. To the right of the stair are deep cupboards and an L-shaped fixed dresser with elaborately carved ends and moulded cornice, probably dating to the later 18th century. An 18th-century cupboard is positioned on the south wall. The small panelled north bedroom has a fielded panelled door. The entrance hall steps up to an east parlour. An 18th-century cupboard in the south wall of the parlour has a moulded architrave and moulded shelves. Pegged scarfed feet to trusses are visible in the south wall of the kitchen, in the north small bedroom, and on the north wall of the parlour. Flagged floors throughout.

The upper floor contains 3 rooms, with the second and third trusses resting on partitions. Doors are panelled. The downhill end room has its own lobby and ladder access to the loft, which contains a scarfed cruck on the western wall and a former arch-braced truss against the chimney. The loft has a boarded ceiling.