Description

SS 72 SW GEORGE NYMPTON

5/65 Narracott Farmhouse including iron
railings to the garden

II

Farmhouse. Probably late medieval in origin, with internal C17 alterations
remodelled and extended in the C18, again in the C19. Rendered stone rubble and cob.
Asbestos slate roof, gable end to right, hipped to left end. Two small rendered
rebuilt stacks, one axial, one to right gable end, brick shaft to rear hall stack
enclosed in later stair projection, and brick stack to gable end of rear service
wing.
Plan: Overall L-shaped, with 4 rooms and through-passage plan to main range, gable-
ended stair addition to rear of inner room and hall butting onto large gable-ended 2-
storey rear kitchen wing to rear of left (upper) end which has a continous
dairy/scullery lean-to outshut along its outer face. Complex plan development.
Roofspace not accessible at time of survey but 3 raised cruck trusses set low over
the hall end lower end strongly suggest a former open hall house, the dramatic rise
in floor level over the hall also suggesting a possible later ceiling over of the
hall to the lower end. The lower end is partitioned axially towards the rear heating
a narrow store-room. The gable end stack may be a C19 insertion. The wide through
passage contains a small straight run staircase, probably late C18 to judge by the 2-
panelled door at the foot of the stairs. The hall was largely remodelled in the C19.
The inner room used as a study in the C19 is most unusual as it is heated by a stack
which backs onto the hall, its large chamfered scroll-stopped axial ceiling beam
suggesting that it may be a C17 addition. It is also partitioned axially towards the
rear to create a separate passage from the hall which runs past the unheated store
room (possibly the original dairy), beyond the inner room to the dairy lean-to
outshut. The solid wall partition between the inner room and store room suggests the
latter may well be an C18 addition, while the 2-storey rear kitchen wing and outshut
would appear to be an early C19 addition. It contains a secondary straight-run
staircase which serves only the room over the store room. In the late C19 a grand
staircase was added in a narrow gable ended 2-storey extension to the rear of the
upper end of hall, with access from the passage to the rear of the inner room.
Exterior: 2-storeys 5-window range. All late C19 6-paned sashes except at the left
end which is C20 2-light casement. Ground floor has late C18/early C19 fenestration
with 16-paned sash towards the left end and two 20-paned sashes to left and a single
20-paned sash to right of through-passage doorway; the single sash at lower end
concealed by a lean-to glass conservatory with brick plinth. Through passage doorway
has C19 classical porch with chamfered square section columns supporting plain
canopy. 6-panelled door, the upper panels glazed. The rear doorway (used as main
entrance) has a timber latticed porch dated 1870; C19 sashes to rear elevation except
for a C20 aluminium framed window introduced into the kitchen wing. Railings
enclosing the garden have ornamental finials and a matching gate.
Interior: Lower end has C19 fireplace surround and grate. 2-panelled doors off
through-passage to hall. Lower end and staircase hall/through-passage partition may
have earlier screen concealed, a C17 chamfered headrail being exposed. C19 marble
chimney-pieces to hall and inner room, that to inner room flanked by integral
cupboards, that to left with C18 hinges chamfered axial ceiling beam, scroll-stopped
at upper end. Storage room not accessible at time of survey. C19 kitchen wing has
panelled back to integral wall bench. Lime-ash floors to kitchen and dairy, part
cobbled/part flagstone floor to scullery. Hall and through-passage have tiled
floors. All the principal chambers have raised and fielded 2-panelled doors. Late
C19 staircase has square sections newels with carved finials and stick balusters.
The feet of three raised cruck trusses are visible, one over lower end, a closed
truss over hall/through-passage partition and one over the hall. Narracott Farmhouse
was, until 1986, in the possession of the Huxtable family for some two centuries, and
the interesting quality interior features reflect the several phases of alterations
carried out by a single family.
MS notes by James Moir.

Listing NGR: SS6999424308

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26401049

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

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)