Description

DOLTON
SS 5712
14/45 Down Farmhouse
II

Farmhouse. Circa 1500 with possibly C16 and early C17 alterations and C17 addition.
Plastered cob and rubble walls. Thatch roof gabled to left and rear wing, hipped to
right. Projecting rendered rubble lateral stack at front, rendered brick stack at
gable end of rear wing.
Plan: originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan, lower end to left has been
demolished and rebuilt in C19 or early C20 as outbuilding. Hall originally open to
the roof with central hearth but due to very limited roof access it is unclear to
what extent the house was open to the roof. The evolution of the plan is also
therefore difficult to ascertain but a few factors suggest that the first stage of
modernisation might have involved the insertion of a chamber over the passage which
was jettied into the still open hall which may have had its front lateral stack
built at this time. There is a solid wall between the hall and inner room but they
are probably contemporary and their flooring was completed by the early C17. In
either the early or mid C17 a heated parlour wing was added behind the inner room.
Probably in the C20 the partition at the higher side of the passage was removed and
its rear doorway was blocked.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front of 2-light C20 small-paned
casements to the right of the projecting stack which has a squint in its left-hand
side and a C19 plank and part-glazed door to the left. Beyond that is the rebuilt
and now single storey lower end. Wing projects behind right-hand end.
Interior: just inside front door to left is original doorway to lower room, now
blocked, with 2-centred chamfered wooden arch.
Sections of a rough wooden screen have been re-used to form an entrance lobby -
originally they presumably constituted a screen between hall and passage. The hall
fireplace has a corbelled wooden lintel which is chamfered and stopped and rests on
a curved wooden corbel. Unchamfered half beam at higher end of hall and similar
cross beam towards lower end which marks a drop in the ceiling level and may well be
a jetty beam as there is a partition above it. The inner room has chamfered and
stopped ceiling beams. In the rear wing is an open fireplace with chamfered and
stopped wooden lintel.
Roof: the foot of one face-pegged jointed cruck is visible on the 1st floor above
the hall. Roof access is very limited but from the hatch at the lower end of the
hall it could be seen that the roof is smoke-blackened although constructional
features were not visible.

Listing NGR: SS5754912998

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26398598

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)