Description

NORTHLEW
SX 59 NW
9/219 Higher Eastcott Farmhouse
-
- II
Farmhouse. Probably early C16 with C17 modifications, modernised in C20. Plastered
cob walls. Hipped thatch roof. Partly projecting plastered rubble front lateral
stack with dripcourse and brick snaft. Brick stack at right-hand end.
Plan: originally apparently of longhouse or longhouse derivative plan with shippon
at lower right-hand end, through-passage, hall and inner room to its left. Judging
from the evidence of the roof timbers the hall may well have originally been open to
the roof with a central hearth. The house is unlikely to nave been open from end to
end however as solid walls divide the hall from inner room and lower end. In the
circa early C17 the front lateral stack was inserted into the hall, probably at the
same time as its ceiling. In the C18 or C19 the shippon was converted to domestic
use and a stack inserted in its end wall. Modernised in late C20 when stairs were
inserted into passage.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front of early C20 2 and 3-light
casements. Circa early C20 gabled porch to right of centre with decorative ridge
tiles and finial to slate roof. C20 plank door. Rear elevation has few openings,
passage doorway to left of centre has chamfered wooden lintel above - doorframe
obscured but may also be C17. Behind the inner room the wall projects possibly for
a former staircase.
Interior: hall has open fireplace with high chamfered wooden lintel. The lower room
has blocked ventilation slits in its walls providing evidence of its former use as a
shippon. The fireplace in this room is a late one with a plain wooden lintel.
Access to the roof was limited but whilst the trusses appeared to be of simple
construction with morticed apex and lapped or halved collars the timbers were
definately darkened as if from smoke-blackening - suggesting a late medieval date.
This appears to be an unusual example of a longhouse some distance away from the
moor.

Listing NGR: SX5157999864

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26440039

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)