Description

UPLOWMAN ST 01 NW 4/164 Hill Farmhouse II Farmhouse. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, thoroughly modernised circa 1980. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks with tall stone rubble chimneyshafts; asbestos slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south. At the right (east) end the former inner room parlour has a gable-end stack. The former hall has a disused rear lateral stack. The service end kitchen at the left end has a large gable-end stack. The surviving section of the original roof indicates that the original house was mostly, if not wholly, open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. Later alterations have removed or hidden the evidence of the subsequent development of the hall and inner room end. The service end was rebuilt as a kitchen in the mid C17. In the C19 the rear of the passage was blocked by the present stair. Circa 1980 the hall, inner room and rear outshots were united by removing the partitions between them. At the same time the beams here and some of the roof were replaced. 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 5-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway contains a C20 door behind a contemporary gabled porch. Near the left end at about the level of the original eaves there is a small square hole right through the wall. It is lined by oak boards and is slightly smoke-blackened. This is a curious feature. It may be a ventilation hole allowing the smoke from the original open hearth fire to escape. The roof is gable-ended. Interior: the crossbeams of the former hall and inner room are all replacements. Sections of the orginal beams form an arcade along the line of the original back wall of the inner room. The inner room fireplace is stone rubble with a soffit- chamfered oak lintel, part of which has been renewed. The hall fireplace is blocked. The upper (hall side) passage screen is a C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen, the muntins are chamfered with cut diagonal stops. The cranked doorhead has been altered in the C20. The large kitchen has a 3-bay ceiling carried on unstopped soffit-chamfered crossbeams. The fireplace is blocked but its large size is apparent and its soffit-chamfered oak lintel shows. On the first floor landing there is a blocked C17 oak 2-light window with chamfered mullion. The chamber over the kitchen has a C17 fireplace and alongside a contemporary cupboard with a panelled door ornamented with chip carving and hung on butterfly hinges. The kitchen end of the roof is also C17 and contains a tall A-frame truss with pegged dovetail-shaped lap jointed collar. The roof over the passage and part of the kitchen and hall either side is original. There are 2 side-pegged jointed crucks of large scantling and it includes single sets of curving windbraces. This roof structure is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The rest of the roof has been rebuilt in the C19 and C20.

Listing NGR: ST0140117125

External Links

• Wikidata Q26461611

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Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)