Description

PAYHEMBURY
ST 00 SE
Lower House including rear garden
3/109
walls
22.2.55
II*
GV

Farmhouse. Mid - late C16, probably earlier origins, major later C16, C17 and early
C18 improvements, some early C19 modernisation. Plastered cob on stone rubble
footings; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof.
Plan and development: L-plan house. The main block faces north-west. Its layout
is derived from a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. At the right (south-west) end is
a lower end parlour with a projecting gable-end st'aek. Next to it is an entrance
hall which has been made by enlarging the former passage at the expense of the lower
end. The stair-turret projects to rear. The dining room, the former hall, has an
axial stack backing onto the former passage. At the left (north-eastern) end is the
unheated inner room which has a secondary service passage through from the front to
the rear block. This rear block projects at right angles behind the left end, wide
enough to overlap the hall. It contains the kitchen with an axial stack backing
onto the cellar behind which has an integral outshot on the outer side.
The main block was possibly built as a late medieval open hall house but if so any
physical evidence from that time has been replaced or hidden. The earliest feature
is probably the hall fireplace but if it is C16 its lintel was replaced in the mid
C17 when a first floor fireplace was provided. The passage and lower end was
rebuilt (and probably enlarged) in the early or mid C17. The early C19
modernisation has hidden much evidence this end. It seems likely that the passage
was enlarged to the entrance hall and the stair turret in the late C17 -early C18.
The kitchen block was added in the mid C17. The hall was floored over about the
same time and it seems that the main block roof over the hall and inner room was
also renewed then. The main block was refurbished in the the late C17 - early C18
and again in the early C19.
House is 2 storeys.
Good exterior: irregular 5-window front of C17, C18 and C19 windows. The right 2-
window section (the parlour end) has early C19 tripartite sashes containing central
9-pane sashes to the first floor and 12-pane sashes to the ground floor. The other
front windows contains rectangular panes of leaded glass. The first floor left end
window is a C17 oak 3-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions. The neighbouring
window is a late C17 - early C18 oak flat face mullion window but has an unusual mid
C17 moulded oak hoodmould. The other windows are C18 and C19 casements. There are
thatch eyebrows over the first floor windows. The entrance hall/former passage
front doorway is right of centre and it contains an early C19 6-panel door with
contemporary panelled reveals and flat-roofed porch with moulded entablature which
is now supported on C20 posts. Another early C19 6-panel door to the service
passage further left. The roof is gable-ended to right and hipped to left. Round
the corner on the left (north-east) side facing into the farmyard is a good 3-window
section of early oak-framed windows mostly containing rectangular panes of leaded
glass. The inner room dairy or buttery at the right end is an unglazed mid C17
window; its mullions are flat-faced with internal chamfers (one replaced in the
early C18 has an internal ogee moulding) and it has internal wooden shutters. The
ground floor left window (to the kitchen) is a mid C17 4-light window with ovolo-
moulded mullions and moulded oak hoodmould. The centre first floor window is a
similar 3-light window without the hoodmould and it is flanked by late C17 - early
C18 flat-faced mullion windows. There are more mid C17 and late C17 - early C18 oak
windows on the other. sides including the rear block cellar. The rear window of the
parlour is probably mid C19; a projecting bay window containing French windows with
glazing bars and margin panes. At the back of the passage there is a probably C17
gabled 2-storey porch but the upper room is now supported on C19 cast iron slender
posts. The 6-panel door behind is also C19 but it is flanked by maybe C17 half-
engaged bulbous piers.
Good interior: contains high quality craftmanship from all the major building
phases. No carpentry is exposed in the entrance hall and parlour and joinery detail
here is all early C19. However part of an earlier chamfered oak lintel is exposed
over the parlour fireplace. The main stair is early C19 with stick balusters but
this is thought to be a rebuild of late C17 -early C18 stair. The hall firepace is
partly blocked but its limestone ashlar jambs and its chamfered and scroll-stopped
oak lintel is exposed. The hall crossbeam is chamfered with the remains of bar-
-scroll stops. The kitchen is a large room with 2 crossbeams; one is a replacement
but the other is chamfered with scroll stops. The kitchen fireplace is blocked but
its large size is evident and its oven housing projects to rear. In the cellar the
chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam rests on a timber-framed partition between
the main room and the integral outshot. The roof here is of probably late C17 -
early C18 A-frame trusses with spiked lap-jointed collars and the principals
continue over the lean-to outshot.
The first floor rooms of the main house show mostly late C18 - early C19 joinery.
The partitions around the main stair landing is mostly bolection-moulded panelling
with a box cornice but also incorporates some sections of earlier panelling which is
carved with strapwork patterns. Also the frieze includes some badges, mostly
acanthus leafs but one appears to represent 3 bobbins. The parlour chamber has a
fine late C17 - early C18 chimneypiece. Many of the doors, cupboards and the like
throughout the house but particularly on the first floor are late C17 - early C18.
The roof structure is in 2 phases, both of them C17 and both of them carried on
side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The earliest section appears to be over the
entrance hall and parlour where the trusses have pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed
collars. The rest of the main block roof and that over the kitchen is probably mid
C17. Here the trusses appear to have been built without collars and later lap-
jointed collars were nailed onto them. The whole roof structure is clean although
the apex of the kitchen roof is charred from a C20 lightning strike.
The rear garden is enclosed by a tall wall; it is plastered cob on stone rubble
footings and mostly has tile coping but some is slate. It is C17 or C18. Along the
south-west side the wall runs alongside the road.
Lower House, along with its garden walls, granary (q.v) and stables (q.v) form an
attractive group. The house itself is a very well-preserved multi-phase house and
it is unusual having so many C17 and early C18 oak windows.

Listing NGR: ST0893501648

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547454

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

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)