Description

MOLLAND
SS 72 NE
14/59 Wade Mill House (formerly listed as
19.4.77 Wade Mill Farmhouse)
GV II
Farmhouse, now house. Circa 1500, remodelled in the early C17, and altered in the
C18 and late C19. Late C20 alterations. Coursed stone rubble, mostly rendered. C19
brick dressings (to openings and as quoins) at right-hand end to front. Hipped
thatched roof (late C20 replacement). Scantle-slate lean-to roof at rear. Stone
square front and rear lateral stacks with weatherings, front stack with brick top
stage.
Plan and development: 3-room and cross passage plan, facing south-east. Late-
Medieval open hall house consisting of hall, with former cross passage and service
room to left and former inner room to right; formerly open to the roof, probably
continuously from end to end with low partitions. Remodelled in the C17, including
the insertion of the first floor (the cob wall between hall and inner room possibly
also a rebuilding of this time), the addition of external lateral stack to front of
hall and the addition of external lateral stacks to rear of former service room and
inner room. Lean-to at rear of hall and inner room, possibly a C17 addition. It is
possible that the house was floored in stages. The ceiling over the upper room is no
earlier than the C18 but this could date from the C18 alterations at this end and
could have replaced a C17 ceiling. The hall ceiling is no earlier than the C17 and it
is possible that the hall was open to the roof for some time after the flooring of
each end and the insertion of the hall stack in the front wall. The inner room has
been enlarged, probably in the C18, and further altered in the mid-to late C19, when
the door at this end was probably inserted, by the addition of a wing at right angles
to the front, since demolished (see set-back and brick dressings in front wall at
this end. Staircase inserted in right-hand rear corner of inner room in the C18,
probably when this end of the house was enlarged (see remaining doors). Late-C20
alterations included probable removal of walls to cross passage and alterations to
the ceiling frame at the service end. C20 staircase in lean-to outshut at rear. All
first-floor partitions are late-C20 insertions. Left-hand (service) end of house
reduced in length in the late C20, probably when ceiling frame altered. 2-storeys
with 1-storey lean-to.
Exterior: Asymmetrical fenestration to front. 3 first floor late-C20 2-light wooden
casements and first floor 2-light wooden casement to right of the C19, with wooden
lintel and C20 concrete cill. Central ground-floor C19 3-light wooden casement to
hall, C20 2-light wooden casement to service end at left and C20 3-light wooden
casement to right, all with wooden lintels. Late-C20 panelled oak door between first
and second windows from left, with wooden lintel and C20 gabled lattice wooden porch.
Blocked doorway to right-hand room, with segmental-brick head and brick reveals.
Front stack with chamfered offsets and small ground-floor window in right-hand
return; base of stack widened at some time (see straight joints in line with
ofrsets). End walls with C20 3-light wooden casement to each floor. C20 door to
right-hand end too. Stack to rear of service room has slightly curved projection of
bread oven to left with slate roof and rendered square bread oven projection to right
with monolithic slate roof.
Interior: Somewhat altered in the late C20. Ceiling frame over left-hand room has
hollow-chamfered cross beam with runout stops and wide joists. (Frame said to have
been altered in the late C20). Open stone fireplace of rear to former left-hand room
with wooden lintel and bread oven. Former hall to centre with probably late-C17 or
C18 ceiling consisting of transverse joists. Open fireplace in front wall with
chamfered stone jambs and wooden lintel. Window seat in hall window to left. Small
C17 cupboard in wall to right with one-panelled door and H-hinges with shaped ends
with transverse joists. 2 with chamfers on one side probably reused from the C17.
Wall plate along part of front wall is reused timber with regularly-spaced pegged
mortices, possibly reused head beam from former screen (see gap in mortices, possibly
former doorway). Probably C18 open fireplace to rear with wooden lintel. C18 door
with 6 raised and fielded panels in corner to right of fireplace fromerly leading to
staircase. Mid-C18 wall cupboard in left-hand wall consisting of 2 doors with 2
raised and fielded panels each, false drawer below and pigeon holes inside.
Remains of late-Medieval roof; smoke-blackened side-pegged jointed cruck truss at
left-hand (lower) end of hall with trenches for former purlins, cambered collar, and
mortice and tenoned apex with notch for former diagonally-set ridge-piece. Rear
blade extends down almost to ground-floor level with hole at foot (possibly used in
the erection of the truss). Mortice in rear blade at head height, possibly formerly
to take head beam of a wooden screen.
Source: Report by R.G. Gilson, November 1984.

Listing NGR: SS7915526678

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26508234

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

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)