Parlour Farmhouse

Very thick rubble walls (almost 1m) now rendered and roughcast; blue slate roofs on 2 levels; red brick chimneys. The plan has 2 elements: a "hall" range on a roughly N-S axis, originally of 2 unequal cells, with a much taller 1-unit, 2½-storey parlour wing at its S end projecting slightly to the E; plus a lean-to at the N gable and another lean-to wrapped round the E gable of the parlour wing (each containing a modern doorway and modern windows). The surviving features of historical interest are wooden mullioned windows in the parlour wing: in the S elevation: one of 6 lights at ground floor and one of 2 lights at 1st floor; and in the W gable wall, one of 7 lights at ground floor and one of 2 lights offset left at 1st floor. All have wooden lintels and deeply-recessed moulded mullions, and those at ground floor have moulded surrounds. (Plate XIVd of Fox & Raglan vol.2 shows a W gable chimney and 2 small attic windows, but the chimney has been removed and the 2 windows have been replaced by a single modern window in the centre of the gable. Also, wooden mullioned windows of 6 and 4 lights at ground floor of the W side of the hall range at the time of their survey have been replaced with modern glazing.) There is a small chimney at the N gable of the hall range and another at the E gable of the wing.

The hall range was originally partitioned to form a "hall" with a small "inner room" at its S end, as indicated by an undecorated lateral beam where the partition would have been. A central lateral beam and a half-beam close to the N gable wall survive, together with a full set of original ceiling joists, all with rich run-out moulding. In the SE corner of this range is a massive Tudor-arched oak doorway with chamfered surround and original plank door with applied vertical moulding, opening into the parlour, from which it was originally lockable with a draw bar, as a slot for this indicates. (This appears to be evidence of a "house-within-a-house", enabling the family to separate themselves from inferior members of the household.) The parlour has 3 lateral beams with run-out moulding like those in the hall range, but a ceiling now conceals the joists. A very thick E gable wall contains a hearth (now concealed) and formerly contained a mural staircase in the SE corner. Built into the SW corner, and extending beneath both windows, is an L-shaped panelled-back settle. The chamber above was reported by Fox & Raglan to contain a lateral beam with running-vine decoration.