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

• Wikidata Q17531695

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Recommended Books

• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)