Description

WITHERIDGE FORE STREET (south side),
SS 81 SW Witheridge
9/80 No. 4 (Ditchetts)
25.3.77
GV II
House. Early C16, floored late C16 or early C17, C17 wing at right-angles to the
right return, 2 further late C18 wings added at right-angles to front. Roughcast
and pebbledashed, probably over a rubble core, straw-thatched roof with a hip on the
wing to the right, brick stack to the left and a brick stack on the right return. 2
C18 wings on front with hipped slate roofs.
Plan and development: open hall house; subsequently a chamber was inserted over the
right end, probably mid C16. In the late C16 or early C17 the whole hall was
floored creating a 3-room plan; a large central room with an axial stack to left
side, an unheated room beyond it to the left which is smaller in size. Further small
room to right of the large central room heated by a rear corner fireplace.
Exterior: 2 storeys, asymmetrical 3 windows, 3 four-pane double-hung sashes, a 2-
light casement with glazing bars to extreme left of first floor, and a C20 casement
to the right of the ground floor. Door opening between the second and third bays,
4-panelled door with a transomlight, door opening to extreme left with paired plank
doors. Rear elevation with C19 fenestration.
Interior: has been much altered in the C18 and C19. Small room to the right-hand
with corner fireplace with a wooden bressumer with chamfer and ogee stops. The 2
further fireplaces on the ground floor with what are probably C18 bressumers,
unchamfered. There are other C18 features on the ground floor including doors and
panelling. The kitchen in wing to rear with C18 cupboard and reused Gothic
wainscotting.
Roof: a complete jointed cruck truss survives over the centre of the house, heavy
notched cranked collar, threaded diagonal ridge adjacent common rafters, through
purlins, battens. The whole is heavily smoke-blackened, also the remains of
lightly-blackened thatch. The roof over the right part of the house was replaced in
the C18, simple joinery. The cruck truss is closed, plastered right up to the apex,
with remains of colourwash to the right side, indicating the existence of a chamber
ovr the right (higher) end of the house.

Listing NGR: SS8047314467

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26401087

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

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)