Description

YARNSCOMBE
SS 52 SE
4/272 Lower Ward Farmhouse and
- farmbuildings adjoining to east

GV II

Farmhouse and adjoining farmbuildings. Early to mid C17 with late C17/early C18
alterations and additions, and further altered probably in the late C19 and early
C20. Undergoing alteration at time of survey (November 1987). Cob with stone
dressings, on roughly squared and coursed stone plinth. Partly rebuilt in C19 stone
rubble and late C20 concrete blockwork. Gable-ended Welsh-slate roof, probably
formerly thatched. Stone stacks with dressed quoins, right-hand one with C17 or C18
red-brick shaft. Farmbuildings of cob and uncoursed stone rubble with Welsh-slate
roof.
Plan and development: C17 three-room and through-passage plan, facing south. Ground
falls to left. Hall with external lateral stack to rear and through passage to
right, right-hand room with external lateral stack to rear (later addition - see
straight joints), and unheated room to left. Formerly with stair tower to rear of
left-hand end of hall (in angle of stack), lean-to outshut at rear of left-hand end
and lean-to outshut at rear of through passage, all since demolished. The outshuts
were probably later additions. Further later alterations included the insertion of a
staircase in the hall to the right of the fireplace (with foot in passage), since
removed, and the lateral division of the left-hand room (partition also now removed).
Eaves raised, probably in the C18 or C19, and eaves of both house and attached
buildings further slightly raised probably when they were re-roofed in the early C20
(see line of later cob below eaves). Left-hand gable end of house rebuilt, probably
in the late C19. Probably late C19 one-storey square bay to front of hall. Late C20
alterations include the insertion of a front doorway (French casement) in the left-
hand end of the hall and the addition of a wing at the rear of the left-hand end
(under construction at time of survey). Former small barn, added probably C17,
adjoining right-hand rear corner at right angles, with gable end and one-storey lean-
to outshut to front. Two-storey house with one-storey outshuts.
Exterior: 4 windows to first floor, late C19/early C20 two-light wooden casements.
Ground-floor C19 three-light wooden casement to right, projecting square bay to hall
(windowless at time of survey) and C20 French casement to left (replacing former
window). Passage doorway off-centre to right with beaded softwood frame in front of
C17 oak frame, wooden lintel and stone reveals. Left-hand gable end has late C19
three-light wooden casement with wooden lintel. Tapered stack to rear of hall with
offset and projecting semi-circular bread oven and stack to rear of right-hand room
with weatherings, offsets to brick shaft, and late C20 buttress to front. Rear
passage-doorway has old boarded door with strap hinges, pegged chamfered wooden
frame, wooden lintel and stone reveals. Small early to mid-C17 chamfered-mullioned
first-floor 2-light wooden window above rear doorway, with diamond-section wrought-
iron stanchions and wooden lintel. Boarded loft door to left with brick dressings.
Barn to rear has pair of large boarded doors to side, with blocked doorway to right
(see straight joints and wooden lintel). Boarded loft door in gable-end to rear with
pegged wooden frame. Lean-to outshut to front gable-end of barn has late C17/early
C18 three-light flat-faced mullioned wooden window, and boarded door with strap
hinges to right-hand side.
Interior: Hall has C17 chamfered cross beam with straight-cut stops. C17 open
fireplace to rear with wooden lintel, jambs brought forward in the late C20, and
bread oven with C19 cast-iron door set in earlier arch. Remains of early to mid-C17
plank and muntin screen to right (between hall and passage) with head beam and one
remaining chamfered muntin with mason's mitred mortice and tenon joint. The
surviving muntin was probably the right-hand jamb of a doorway (see chamfered head
beam to its left and rebate for former plank in to right-hand side). Mortices for
former muntins visible on underside of head beam. Window seat in hall bay. Left-
hand ground-floor room with rough-hewn cross beam, formerly head of stud partitions.
Right-hand ground-floor room has blocked fireplace to rear with wooden lintel, and
window seat. C17 roof has trusses with principal rafters and collars, all below
early C20 roof. Three early to mid-C17 ovolo-moulded oak door frames with mitred-
ovolo pegged joints, one in doorway between passage and right-hand ground-floor room
and 2 from the former rear staircase (all ex situ at time of survey). The late C20
French casement to the left of the hall bay replaced a late C17/early C18 three-light
flat-faced mullioned wooden window with wrought-iron diamond-section stanchions
(window still in existence at time of survey).
The house forms part of a farmstead group which also includes a barn and stable (qv).

Listing NGR: SS5526123783

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26493656

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)