Description

UPLOWMAN
ST 01 NW
4/164 Hill Farmhouse
II
Farmhouse. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, thoroughly
modernised circa 1980. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks
with tall stone rubble chimneyshafts; asbestos slate roof, formerly thatch.
Plan and development: originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing
south. At the right (east) end the former inner room parlour has a gable-end stack.
The former hall has a disused rear lateral stack. The service end kitchen at the
left end has a large gable-end stack.
The surviving section of the original roof indicates that the original house was
mostly, if not wholly, open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an
open hearth fire. Later alterations have removed or hidden the evidence of the
subsequent development of the hall and inner room end. The service end was rebuilt
as a kitchen in the mid C17. In the C19 the rear of the passage was blocked by the
present stair. Circa 1980 the hall, inner room and rear outshots were united by
removing the partitions between them. At the same time the beams here and some of
the roof were replaced. 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular 5-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. The passage
front doorway contains a C20 door behind a contemporary gabled porch. Near the left
end at about the level of the original eaves there is a small square hole right
through the wall. It is lined by oak boards and is slightly smoke-blackened. This
is a curious feature. It may be a ventilation hole allowing the smoke from the
original open hearth fire to escape. The roof is gable-ended.
Interior: the crossbeams of the former hall and inner room are all replacements.
Sections of the orginal beams form an arcade along the line of the original back
wall of the inner room. The inner room fireplace is stone rubble with a soffit-
chamfered oak lintel, part of which has been renewed. The hall fireplace is
blocked. The upper (hall side) passage screen is a C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen,
the muntins are chamfered with cut diagonal stops. The cranked doorhead has been
altered in the C20. The large kitchen has a 3-bay ceiling carried on unstopped
soffit-chamfered crossbeams. The fireplace is blocked but its large size is
apparent and its soffit-chamfered oak lintel shows. On the first floor landing
there is a blocked C17 oak 2-light window with chamfered mullion. The chamber over
the kitchen has a C17 fireplace and alongside a contemporary cupboard with a
panelled door ornamented with chip carving and hung on butterfly hinges. The
kitchen end of the roof is also C17 and contains a tall A-frame truss with pegged
dovetail-shaped lap jointed collar. The roof over the passage and part of the
kitchen and hall either side is original. There are 2 side-pegged jointed crucks of
large scantling and it includes single sets of curving windbraces. This roof
structure is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The rest of the
roof has been rebuilt in the C19 and C20.

Listing NGR: ST0140117125

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26461611

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
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)