Description

SY 28 NW BRANSCOMBE

8/14 Little Seaside Farmhouse - 27.9.83 - II Farmhouse. Probably early-mid C16 with a major early-mid C17 refurbishment, renovated with an extension circa 1982. Mostly local stone and flint rubble although the front includes sections of squared blocks of Beerstone laid to rough courses and the rear includes some cob; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof. Plan and development: 5-room plan house built across the hillslope and facing south-west. The left end room has a gable-end stack although this is a C20 insertion. The room left of centre has an axial kitchen stack, backing onto the centre room, a former parlour with a projecting rear lateral stack and with a newel stair turret projecting alongside. Right of centre an unheated room and the right end room has an axial stack. This right end room is an addition of circa 1982. The rest of the house was altered a little when it was converted to cottages in the C18 or C19 but is still essentially an early-mid C17 house made by rearranging an earlier house. This earlier house was undoubtedly some form of open hall house but its precise layout is unclear. The kitchen appears to occupy the former hall but it is not known where the passage was. Also since the roofpsace is inaccessible it is not known whether the original house had an open hearth fire although smoke blackening is suspected since the kitchen/former hall fireplace is early-mid C17. There are also some curious straight joints showing in the masonry of the front wall, but they do not contribute towards any understanding the C16 farmhouse. It is 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 6-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars. There are 2 front doorways and both are secondary insertions. The left one, into the former kitchen, contains a C20 French window. The right one, into the former parlour, contains a C19 plank door in an early-mid C17 oak crank-headed doorframe. This doorframe has probably been moved from the early-mid C17 front doorway which is now blocked by the window between the present doorways. The roof is gable-ended to left and half-hipped to right. Interior: the plastered partition between the kitchen and unheated room is not structural and not even positioned directly underneath the chamfered crossbeam there which retains a couple of runout stops. The kitchen crossbeam is chamfered with scroll stops, the same finish as the oak lintel of the large fireplace which also includes a large oven. The Cl7 lobby entrance was at the the front end of this stack. Across the back of the stack and showing in the parlour is a C16 oak plank- and-muntin screen. Its original central doorway was blocked by the kitchen fireplace and a new crank-headed doorway was cut through the front end to the C17 lobby. In the former lobby the ends of joists oversail the screen suggesting an internal jetty arrangement into an open hearth before the kitchen stack was built. Another oak plank-and-muntin screen at the other end of the parlour and the crossbeam here is chamfered with bar-scroll stops. In the back wall is a relatively small Beerstone ashlar fireplace with richly-moulded jambs (the soffit of the lintel has been cut back). Alongside to right are a pair of crank-headed doorways; the first is larger and leads to the stair, the second is to the cupboard below the stairs. At the head of the stairs are a pair of crank-headed doorways to the former principal chambers. The partition between them and another across the back of the hall stack are oak-framed. The roof is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses and includes a particularly wide bay over the kitchen/former hall. The roof structure is probably C16 but the roofspace is inaccessible. This is an interesting and attractive farmhouse.

Listing NGR: SY2051888469

External Links

• Wikidata Q26398114

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Recommended Books

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)