Description

DUNSFORD
SX 89 SW

3/7 Ford Farmhouse

- II

Farmhouse. Circa 1680 with late C20 windows and some internal re-arrangement of the
late C20. Colourwashed rendered cob with slate roofs gabled at ends, end stacks with
brick shafts, projecting stone rubble stack with oven to rear left wing.
Single build U-plan house, 3-rooms wide with principal rooms on either side of a
central entrance hall with a stair and adjacent through passage to the rear. Rear
left and right wings contain service rooms, the rear left wing was formerly a kitchen
and is heated by a lateral stack on the inner return wall. In the late C20 the
principal ground floor room has been enlarged by moving the partition wall towards
the centre of the house.
2 storeys. Symmetrical 7-bay front with coved eaves, the central bay slightly
advanced. C20 open porch with gabled roof carried on columns. Fenestration of late
C20 plastic top-hung casements in original embrasures, the windows replaced are said
to have been casements with high transoms.
Interior The house retains high quality features of circa 1680 including decorated
plasterwork (Period Three, French). The principal ground floor room has a bolection-
moulded chimney piece with an integral landscape painting on boards in the
overmantel. A central cross beam is cased in moulded plaster; on either side of the
beam plaster ovals enriched with thistles and oak leaves. A fine dog leg stair has
a flat handrail and thick barley sugar balusters which continue to the third flight
which leads into the attic. The principal first floor room has a bolection-moulded
chimney piece with an integral painting on boards in the overmantel: the painting
depicts a hunting scene and is rustic in execution. C19 grate. The ceiling is
decorated with plaster floral motifs. Ground floor room left has a massive fireplace
with stone jambs and a plain timber lintel, 1 original door survives between this
room and the former kitchen to the rear: the door has panels formed by moulded
battens and a chamfered pegged door frame with ogee stops. The former kitchen has a
massive open fireplace. The attic was presumably used as a garret room and has oak
floor boards, the apex of the roof inacessible at time of survey (1985) but the roof
trusses appear to be coeval with the house.
The internal features of Ford Farmhouse are particularly fine examples of high class
plasterwork and joinery of the circa late C17.
The ground floor overmantel painting is illustrated incountr Life and described as
probably of Dutch origin.
Kathleen and Cecil French, "Devonshire Plasterwork", T.D.A., 1957, vol. 89, pp. 124-
144.
Contry Life , Feb. 23, 1956.

Listing NGR: SX8319490806

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26509371

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 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover