Description

DIPTFORD SX75SW 8/226 Newhouse Farmhouse including barn and out-building adjoining west

II

Farmhouse and adjoining barn and outbuilding. Circa mid C17 with early to mid C19 alterations and additions. Slate rubble, rendered at the ends and at the backs; along the front a roughly chamfered slate plinth. slate roof with gable end to right and hall hipped end to left. 2 rear lateral chimney stacks with later rendered brick shafts projecting and right hand gable end stack with C19 brick shaft. Plan: an interesting C17 plan; 3 rooms and cross-passage between the right and centre rooms; the lower end to the right behind which is a wide but shallow integral wing containing a framed stairs rising from the back of the passage and a small unheated room to the right of the stairs behind the lower end room. The lower end room is heated from a gable end stack without an oven. The central room, (the hall) has a large rear lateral stack which is blocked but may have had an oven. The inner room to the left may have been a moderate size parlour, the same size as the hall and like the hall it is also heated from a rear lateral stack. The original use of the room is unclear. Was the hall used as a kitchen and the lower right hand room unheated originally? However in the early to mid C19 the plan was rearranged the lower right hand room was upgraded to a parlour, the inner room at the left end became the kitchen with an oven in its rear lateral stack, and an unheated outshut was built at the back of the higher end room; this outshut continued to the left behind the outbuilding and farm building which were added at the left end of the house probably at the same time in the C19. In the C20 part of the passage/hall partition was removed and a small entrance lobby formed and the space between the rear wing and the outshut was filled with a small one-room plan 2-storey addition. In the 1980's the front window of the left hand room (now a kitchen) was made into a French window. the house is situated on the steep south facing side of a valley, the ground falling away at the front and rising steeply at the back. The ground at the right hand lower end falls away gently. Exterior: 2 storeys. Regular 4-window range. First floor has 3 early to mid C19 horizontally sliding sashes with glazing bars and to the left one C19 2-type casement with glazing bars, all with slate cills. Ground Floor: to right an early to mid C19 16-pane sash with a flat red brick arch; the large hall window at the centre has been replaced with a C20 casement with a concrete lintel and to the left what was probably a C20 sash has been replaced with a late C20 French window but retains its flat red brick arch. To right of centre a wide fielded 6-panel door, the bottom panels flush and a C20 concrete canopy on brackets. At the back a wide hipped 2-storey wing to left and a single storey outshut to the right with a C20 2-storey flat roof addition between. The two large rear lateral stacks are concealed behind the outshut and C20 addison. All C20 casements at the back except for an early C19 fixed-light window with glazing bars lighting the stairs at the left hand wing; this window has a C17 wooden lintel with a stopped chamfer. Interior: the hall rear lateral fireplace is blocked with a C20 brick fireplace and the right hand room gable end fireplace has dressed slate jambs but the timber lintel has been replaced with a granite lintel. The lateral fireplace at the rear of the left hand room (kitchen) has a range inserted but there is said to be a bread oven behind. On the first floor landing and at the bottom of the stairs into the unheated room in the rear wing there are 2 C17 chamfered wooden doorframes with true mitres and ogee and hourglass stops, the ground floor doorway has an early C18 fielded 2- panel door. On the first floor there are some circa early C19 fielded 4- panel doors. The wide C17 framed staircase in the rear wing has square newels with shaped tops very heavy square handrail and thick square balusters. Apart from the above interior features and a few C19 plank doors the interior has few features and the ceilings are relatively high, without exposed ceiling beams. Roof: the roof over the main range is C20, but over the rear wing there is an earlier structure its collars are lapped and pegged to the faces of the principal rafters. Including an early to mid C19 barn linked to the west end of the house by another outbuilding with a lower roof level; the barn is shale rubble with a slate half-hipped roof, the ground floor has 2 shippon or stable doors and a left door to the first floor to the right. The ground at the back was at higher level until it was excavated recently. The short link building is 2 storeys with one C20 casement at each floor. Said to have been called the New House in a deed of 1640.

Listing NGR: SX7393453453

External Links

• Wikidata Q26402099

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Recommended Books

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)