Description

KINGS NYMPTON
SS 62 SE
1/116 Capelcombe Farmhouse
20.2.67
- II*
Farmhouse. Early C16 but earlier fabric may be concealed. Painted rendered stone
rubble and cob. Thatch roof, gable end to right, half-hipped to left end and to
rear wing. Tall front lateral stone rubble hall stack and stone rubble stack at left
end.
Plan: 3-room and cross-passage plan, lower end to left, with short unheated dairy
wing to rear right end. Inaccessibility of roof structure inhibits a full
interpretation of the development, but an impressive cruck truss over the hall
undoubtedly points to the hall having originally been open to the roof. Solid wall
partitions rise to the apex of the roof on the lower side of the passage and between
the hall and inner room, but it is not clear whether the 2 ends were ceiled from the
outset. The dairy wing appears to have been added at the same time as the hall was
ceiled over.
Exterior: 2 storeys. 4-window range. C19 fenestration entirely intact, all 3-
light casements 8 panes per light to upper storey. Ground floor has two 4-light
casements 8 panes per light to right of stack and C20 porch with gabled slate roof
and a 2-light casement 8 panes per light to left. The C19 inner plank door has been
rehung as an outer doorway to the porch. C17 4-light window to rear wing with thick
mullions of rectangular section, one of the lights retaining square leaded panes.
Interior: exceptionally good interior with good quality joinery and carpentry
surviving virtually intact. Inner room has moulded plaster cornice to all four
walls and old window bench. C16 chamfered pointed arched surround to doorway
between hall and inner room and 4-centred arched doorway between hall and dairy.
Dairy has deep chamfered axial ceiling beam and old shutters to window at right end.
Hall has chamfered bressumer at upper end and deep chamfered cross ceiling beam with
large hollow step stops, that at front end facing upper end is slightly keeled and
notched to resemble leaf decoration. Keel-stopped ogee-moulded lintel to fireplace
which has bread oven door to right side (the oven projection having been demolished)
and small single light round-arched timber window to squint on left side. Old oak
window seat and bench at upper end with integral wall cupboard above. Plank and
muntin screen at lower end of hall, 4 planks wide, the muntins chamfered on passage
side, and incorporating 2 doorways, that between hall and passage has been converted
to straight-headed from a 4-centred arched surround, that adjoining to left has been
blocked, the bottom flight of the staircase in with the passage (which breaks into 2
flights at the head) having been turned in C20 to face the front doorway, and the old
plank door rehung at the foot. Hollow chamfered head rail. Lower end has bressumer
and cross ceiling beam with deep chamfers and hollow step stops. The fireplace is
unusual, with a centrally situated hearth with dressed stone jambs and an impressive
timber lintel which is cambered and chamfered over the fireplace and continues to the
left to the front wall to form a slightly narrower and partially blocked hearth
arrangement which was probably a smoking chamber. To the right is a deep chamber
which shows as an integral 2-storey cob projection on the outer end wall and which
closely resembles the corn-drying chambers of Somerset farmhouses. There is a
similar deep chamber at first floor level, from where it can be seen that the stone
rubble stack is actually detached from the end cob wall.
Roof: roofspace not accessible. Purlins over lower end and inner room are carried on
partition and end walls, except at lower end where a single raised cruck blade is
supported by the stack. Over the hall is an impressive cruck truss, the front foot
certainly continuing down to first floor level, and possibly originally a full cruck
before the addition of the hall stack.
Capelcombe is a remarkably unspoilt farmhouse with good quality fittings surviving
throughout.

Listing NGR: SS6889822470

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17531695

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair