Ton Farmhouse

Ton Farmhouse

This is a substantial farmhouse of considerable architectural interest, dating from 1663, with later additions. The building is constructed of local rubble stone, wholly limewashed, and roofed with Welsh slate.

The main house is two storeys with attics, flanked by a two-storey rear wing and extension, and includes two single-storey lean-tos. The plan is a single-depth central-entrance design, roughly symmetrical. A kitchen wing was added to the left gable, and a wing containing a dairy and additional bedroom was added to the rear of the left-hand room.

The entrance is sheltered by a three-storey gabled porch. The doorway itself is a narrow two-centred arch of undressed stone, containing an original plank door of three vertical planks with moulded strips covering the joints and original strap hinges. The oak frame is moulded with a quarter-round to the chamfer, and the doorhead is shaped and carries the inscribed date 1663. To the left is a 19th-century three-light casement beneath an oak lintel, set where the early 17th-century ground-floor opening has been slightly enlarged. To the right is a three-light casement with an elliptical head, altered from a 17th-century opening. The first floor of the porch has an original two-light casement with an ovolo mullion and leaded glazing. To the left is a three-light Victorian casement in what appears to be an original opening, while to the right a drip-mould survives above a blocked window.

The main roof is steeply pitched with single-flue diamond-set chimney stacks to the gables and a two-flue square-set stack in the cross-passage position. The right gable end of the main house is blind, covered by a lean-to with a small window. The left gable is obscured by the kitchen wing except for a two-light casement to the attic. The kitchen wing itself has one two-light casement to each floor on the front elevation and a less steeply pitched roof. Its gable end has a door with a four-plus-four-pane casement to the left and a blocked door above, apparently intended as a workers' loft. A lean-to fills the angle between the rear wing and main range.

The rear elevation of the main block displays, from left to right: an enlarged two-by-two-pane stair window, a four-light casement with an ogee moulded surround beneath an oak lintel (original, as is the three-light casement above), a plain plank door to the cross passage, a similar stair window to the original stair, and a two-by-two window to the original living room, originally wider but cut off by the dairy wing. The dairy wing has a small two-by-two window on the return and another on the gable; the bedroom above has a three-plus-three casement. These windows are Victorian insertions.

Interior

The entrance opens into a cross passage that retains the stack wall of the original house on the left and panelling dated 1663 on the right. The original house is accessed through the gable door, a fine studded door of three planks with moulded raised strips to the joints, complete with original strap hinges, knocker, and catch. The frame is moulded with ogee stops and a shaped head. Chamfered ceiling beams run through the passage. The panelling consists of two vertical panels with moulded studs and bar, with a four-panel door in a moulded architrave.

The original living room or hall has an altered Victorian fireplace and a stone firestair behind a 17th-century plank door with strap hinges. The ceiling beams are plain stop-chamfered, as are the joists. This room leads to a much later featureless kitchen and thence to the dairy wing through a doorway in the back wall. The dairy wing was added in 1663; its moulded doorway with a four-centred head and three-plank door with strap hinges is original. The dairy was refitted in the 19th century and retains some of its slate shelving and flagstone floor.

The parlour, beyond the panelled screen, contains a distinctive fireplace with an oak lintel decorated with incised flowers and scrolls; the room above has a similar lintel. The jambs are panelled in oak with caps. A moulded salt cupboard door stands to the left. A timber stair rises to the left of the fireplace. This room has ceiling beams with quarter-round chamfers and ogee stops, as does the room above; both retain plaster ceilings with combed mouldings. The upper room has an original plank cupboard door with strap hinges. Another room has a boarded ceiling supported by closely set beams as if to carry a store room above. A stone attic stair reaches two unceiled attic rooms and a tiny room over the porch.

The roof structure is notable, with massive principal rafters with collars, the principals halved and pegged at the apex, and three tiers of trenched purlins, some of which have been replaced. The ridge piece and secondary rafters appear to have been entirely replaced.