Park Farm

Park Farm is a large Renaissance farmhouse, likely dating from the 16th century, with alterations and additions throughout its history. The building is constructed of rubble stone with some ashlar dressings, and has a hipped slate roof with a valley to the southwest. It follows a U-plan. Two lateral end-walls have two chimney stacks each, featuring stone bases and 20th-century brick flues. The front elevation to the southeast has three small rooflights. Windows are characterised by segmental arches formed from stone voussoirs, with shallow stone sills. The first floor has three 12-pane sash windows, and traces remain in the masonry of two other blocked windows. The ground floor features a 20th-century gabled stone porch centrally located, with two 12-pane sashes to the left and a large 20th-century window within an enlarged segmental-arched opening to the right. The rear elevation faces a farmyard. The attic storey has three gabled dormer windows, with boarded gables and 6+6 casement windows. The main wall of the rear elevation has 20th-century metal windows, and the first floor mirrors the front elevation with three windows in original openings. The ground floor has similar windows flanking a centrally located boarded door, with an attached 20th-century lean-to conservatory to the right. A single-storey gabled addition with a corrugated metal roof is attached to the southwest elevation, and 20th-century windows are found on both the first and ground floors of the central wall of the main house.

The house follows a symmetrical, double-pile plan. The front door is six-panelled, with the upper four panels glazed, leading into a central stairhall. A ground-floor room to the left contains a fireplace with reused cavetto moulded monolithic jambs and a segmental arch of stone voussoirs. The ground-floor room to the right features a chamfered ceiling beam and a 19th-century fireplace surround in black marble with jade colonettes supporting a shelf on either side. The dog-leg stair has been reconstructed on the ground floor, but a fine 17th-century original staircase remains on the first and attic floors, characterised by a closed string, turned, slightly bulbous balusters, and a shaped rail. The square newel posts are beaded at the angles with plain caps and have attached half balusters on the inner face. Attic balusters are plain. A 19th-century servants’ stair at the back of the house includes winders. The back kitchen features chamfered ceiling beams with run-out stops. An unusually large, habitable five-room attic has a collar truss roof with two tiers of chamfered purlins, and three surviving 17th-century plank and batten doors with strap hinges.