Description

HOLCOMBE ROGUS
ST 02 SE
2/92 Freathingcott Farmhouse
-
GV
II*
Farmhouse. Early C17 with some mid C19 modernisation. Plastered walls, some i
evidently all local stone rubble but most appears to be cob on stone rubble
footings; stone rubble stacks and chimneyshafts; slate roof, formerly thatch.
Plan: 1-plan house. The main block faces south and is built across a relatively
steep slope. It has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan but this is not the usua
late medieval model. The left (west) end room on the 'lower' side of the passage i
a parlour with a gable-end stack. The hall or dining room on the 'upper' side o.
the passage has an axial stack backing onto an unheated room at the right (east
end. The rear block projects at right angles to rear of the right end service root
and it contains the kitchen with a large gable end stack with a curing chamber
alongside and projecting to rear. Integral outshots across the back of the mat
block once contained dairies but these have now been brought into domestic use. Th
outshots also contain the main staircase which rises to rear of the hall in th
angle of the 2 wings. This is a single phase building. It is 2 storeys high wits
an original cellar under the parlour.
Exterior: irregular 4-window front. The 3-window section to left, serving the
principal rooms, is almost symmetrical around the passage front doorway and all art
C19 windows. To left, over a low doorway to the cellar, are 16-pane sashes, tc
right tripartite sashes with central 12-pane sashes, and, over the doorway a 12-pane
sash. The doorway is original; an oak frame with ovolo-moulded surround containing
a contemporary studded plank door with moulded coverstrips and ornate strap hinges.
The gabled porch is also C17 and the oak lintel of the outer doorway is soffit-
chamfered with scroll stops. At the right end of the front are C20 casements with
glazing bars. There are more to rear but there is a tiny C17 oak-framed window to
the curing chamber and an oak-mullioned window of the same date to one of the former
dairy outshots.
Good interior: where carpentry detail is exposed it is C17 but much is hidden by
C19 plaster. All the crossbeams, including those over the first floor bed chambers
and the cellar are soffit-chamfered with lambstongue stops. Both hall and parlour
fireplaces are blocked by C19 grates. The large kitchen one is open but has a
replacement oak lintel. The division between service room and kitchen was moved
circa 1960 to enlarge the service room. There are the remains of the C17 doorframe
with its ovolo-moulded surround between service room and hall. Elsewhere the
doorframes have C19 architraves and most of the joinery detail is C19 including the
pretty splat baluster stair. The hall retains an original oak shaped bench end
against the passage partition. Roof of clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with
dovetail-shaped pegged lap-jointed collars.
Despite much of the structure being hidden by C19 plaster the C17 house appears to
survive remarkably intact. It is a very interesting house in terms of its
transitional (medieval to modern) plan form.

Listing NGR: ST0635420144

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17548219

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

• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)