Listed Building: The Farmhouse at Pond Farm, Stoven (DSF18751)

A multi-phase vernacular farmhouse, primarily dating to the second half of the C18 but with some earlier C17 fabric. MATERIALS The house is walled in red brick, has some structural timber components, and the roofs are covered in unglazed pantiles. PLAN The house is four bays long with a larder attached to the south side of the eastern bay. Evidence survives of a C17 lobby entry plan though the building no longer conforms to this type. EXTERIOR The building is four bays long and two storeys high. The walls are built of red brick laid predominantly in Flemish bond and the pitched roofs are covered in unglazed pantiles. There are gables to the east and west. At the west end there is a lean-to extension on the north side. At the east end the building has been extended to the south where it connects to a threshing barn. The south elevation faces on to the farmyard. There are three chimneys through the ridge of the roof. At ground floor there are two entrances, two blocked windows and one wooden casement window with a flat brick arch. At first floor there are three wooden casement windows, two dating from the C20. The anchors for several tie bars appear across the elevation. The side elevation of the larder projects southwards. It is one and a half storeys high and is built of red brick laid in monk bond. The entrance has been altered and includes a C19 plank and batten door; there is also a C20 wooden casement window beneath a segmental arch. The west elevation is a plain brick gable with wooden casement windows beneath flat brick arches at ground and first floor. On the left-hand-side is a projecting lean-to extension. The wall of the north elevation is brick, except in the west bay where an area of exposed timber studs and historic render survives above the roofline of the lean-to extension. This W bay also has evidence of a small window but the rest of the elevation has no openings above ground floor and the brickwork of the eastern end shows signs of successive phases of alteration. At ground floor, the middle bay has a C18 entrance with shallow arched head and a six-panelled door in a wooden surround. The straight-headed entrance in the east bay is of C20 date, its door with a glazed upper panel. There are two C18 windows flanking the C18 entrance, with arched heads of similar profile, each frame of 12 lights divided by glazing bars. A third wooden casement window to the east is of later date, with nine lights. The lean-to W extension is walled in brick with a chimney on the east side, and roofed with corrugated sheets. The east elevation comprises a brick gable wall terminating in a chimney stack. Two attic windows appear to have been blocked. There are two first-floor wooden casement windows beneath segmental brick arches. The ground floor's right bay has a small wooden window with a top-light. The left bay has C20 lean-to extension built of stretcher-bond brickwork with a corrugated sheet roof. On the south side is the east elevation of the larder extension to the kitchen; it is built of monk-bond brickwork. INTERIOR The interior reflects the building's multi-phase vernacular character and retains a high proportion of historic features. The floor coverings are brick or pamment at ground floor (except the kitchen which has a concrete floor) and deal boards at first floor. The fireplaces date from the C18 and C19 with cast iron grates. It is likely that earlier openings may exist behind the current fixtures, particularly the back-to-back stack in the western bay. One ground floor fireplace was built over in the 1930s when a gas fire was installed with a tiled surround. The large kitchen fire has been built out so that a range cooker could be installed, but the original opening is likely to survive, as does a C19 bread oven and copper boiler. The joinery is also a mixture of C18 and C19 dates, including plain skirtings and architraves, plank and batten doors, shelves and cupboards. There is an unusual door made of lathes rather than planks in the western first floor room.