Description

DOLTON
SS 51 SE
5/58 Westlake Farmhouse
II
Farmhouse. Circa 1500 with C16 alterations and late C16 or early C17 addition and
alterations; C19 addition. Plastered cob and rubble walls. Slate roof gabled to
right and rear wing, hipped to left. Slightly projecting plastered rubble lateral
stack at front. Rubble stack to gable-end of rear wing.
Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan with lower end to the right. Originally open
to the roof from end to end with central hearth to hall. The lower end was floored
probably not long after the house was built, with its chamber projecting slightly
into the open hall. The wing to the rear of the inner room cannot be dated
precisely without an inspection of its roof timbers but is unlikely to be later than
early C17 and being heated by a gable-end stack functioned either as a kitchen or a
parlour. The hall itself is unlikely to have been ceiled until the mid C17 and had
a straight flight staircase added in a projection to its rear. At the front of the
hall a lateral stack was added. It is unclear when the passage along the rear of
the hall was inserted as its headbeam is a C17 timber which runs in the opposite
direction to the hall ceiling beams. C19 outshut added behind stair projection.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front of C20 1 and 2-light small-paned
casements apart from ground floor right-hand window which is single-paned. C19
plank door to right of centre. Slightly projecting ground floor window to left of
lateral stack. Wing projecting to rear of left-hand end. The rear elevation has an
outshut to the right of centre built in front of the rectangular stair projection
which has chamfered wooden light in left-hand end. To the left on the 1st floor is
a Cl6 unglazed 2-light wooden mullion window with diamond section mullion which has
had a C20 pane inserted in front of it.
Interior: 2 heavy oak square-headed pegged doorframes which may be original survive
in the partitions between the passage and lower room and the hall and inner room.
The hall has an open fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel. Above the lintel is a
small royal cost of arms in plaster relief of uncertain date. High scratch moulded
axial beams to hall. The roll-moulded headbeam to the partition of the rear of the
hall is lower than the main beams. Above the partition between the passage and the
hall is a moulded beam with pyramid stops. Projecting into the hall over this
partition are fairly rough jetty joists with curved ends. 1st floor fireplace in
rear wing has chamfered wooden lintel.
Roof: over the main range the roof is smoke-blackened with cruck form trusses the
feet of which are not fully visible. Morticed collars, threaded purlins and
diagonal ridge. There is evidence of a partition in the roof over the jetty into
the hall, and the roof over the lower end is considerably less smoke-blackened. The
roof-space over the rear wing was not accessible but it also has cruck-form trusses
with threaded purlins and probably morticed collars.
This is an interesting building whose complex development and wealth of internal
features are belied by a fairly plain exterior.

Listing NGR: SS5596211152

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26617827

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]