Ground floor	The loft

  Farmhouse from the 16^th century  Extensions from the 17^th century

Description of the building
Ground floor
 

This floor contains the kitchen, bedrooms, livestock pens and storage area. The kitchen occupies the same surface area as in the 16th century and is built around a central fireplace and cooking area. Furniture includes various chests, the hook and chain assembly from which the cooking pot hangs and a zizeilu, a bench-table with a high back to protect against the cold.

Next to the kitchen door visitors can see the cider press’s stone counterweight and the start of the large threaded shaft that continues up to the second floor. These elements, along with the staircase located opposite the counterweight, all correspond to the original 16th century building,  and were not modified during the 17th century extensions.  The barn area is divided into two sections: one for livestock and the other for storing produce and equipment. The first of these areas contains a series of cattle troughs and is located just behind the kitchen, to which it is connected by two windows with sliding doors. The sheep pens are located slightly further in.

The rest of the barn area would have been used for storing barrels of cider and large farming implements such as carts and ploughs, etc. In the ceiling over the cattle pens, visitors can still see the enormous wooden beams that supported the weight of the cider press itself.

The kitchen provides access to the only bedroom that existed in the original 16th century farmhouse and which would, of course, have been built entirely from wood. When the building was enlarged during the 17th century, three new bedrooms were added and the old room fell into disuse.

 

The staircase in the kitchen leads up to the loft. This area was used for storing food products and making cider.  The central area is occupied by the farmhouse’s most important element: the cider press. The press consists of the basket, in which the crushed apples are placed, and a large 10-metre beam fixed diagonally above. The threaded shaft that is connected to the stone counterweight in the kitchen passes up through a hole in the floor to connect with one end of the beam. Although the press was only used once a year during the cider-making season, it nevertheless determined the design of the whole building. Its dimensions determined the length of the house and the need to support its sheer mass necessitated the use of large wooden supports with sturdy, single-piece posts and other such structures.

The area around the basket was used for storing and drying foodstuffs, such as livestock fodder, beans, ham, bacon and other farm produce, as well as small and medium size tools and implements.

The wall near the threaded shaft is part of the original main façade, although it has not survived in its entirety, having had doors knocked into it in order to provide access to the overhang added during the 17th century. This area is divided into various sections and was used for drying corn and storing wheat, as well as serving as a carpenter’s workshop, apiary and pigeon loft.

The structure

The farmhouse conserves several key elements of its original structure, although others have been lost or modified over the centuries. Some of the most important surviving structural features are the single-piece posts that run from the floor to the rafters; the double central posts which support the main beam of the cider press; the impressive structure of the press itself, consisting of beam, shaft, nut, stone, basket and supports; the wooden panels in the walls; the 16thcentury single-piece rafters, the short 17th century ones; the floors.

The furniture

This type of farmhouse generally contained few items of furniture, all of which would have been eminently practical.  As we wander around the building, we will see a number of different utensils and items of furniture, the majority of which are located in the room or area in which they would have been used.  The kitchen contains a simple set of ceramic crockery, as well as various cooking utensils and tools for lighting and stoking the fire and making linen thread from flax. In addition to the bed frames, the bedrooms are also furnished with wooden chests which were used for storing clothes.

In the barn area, visitors can see the tools and utensils that were used during the various farming activities, including the making and storing of cider. The loft contains a variety of items, including the implements required for working the cider press, a set of carpenter’s tools and the large containers used for storing grain and cereals.