Description

MORCHARD BISHOP Middle Leigh
SS 70 NE
5/305 Farmhouse
II

Farmhouse. C16 with major late and C17 improvements. Cob with stone rubble footings
(some inserted), much stone rubble patching; some rubble and cob stacks topped with
C19 and C20 brick; corrugated iron over thatch roof.
The house faces south onto the farm courtyard. Its plan is the result of the mid C17
refurbishment although some of the rooms evidently changed their function in the C19.
It has a 3-room plan. The present kitchen is at the right (east) end but this was the
Cl7 inner room/parlour. It has mend stack and rear projecting newel stair turret.
The central hall was apparently unheated. It now has an axial stack backing onto the
present kitchen. This is C19 although the first floor chamber fireplace may well be
Cl7. The left (eastern) room has an end cob stack and this was probably the Cl7
kitchen. C19 dairy and byre with haylofts added onto right end. House is 2 storeys.
Irregular 3-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars to main house.
Doorway is set left of centre in position of a C17 window. It and the window to left
have C17 oak lintels; both soffitt-chamfered with scroll stops internally. Roof is
gable-ended. To rear the newel stair turret contains a small Cl7 oak 2-light window.
Interior contains mostly Cl7 carpentry detail. The left room, the C17 kitchen, has
a large rubble fireplace with oak lintel and the blocked doorway of a side oven. The
crossbeam here has plain soffit chamfers. There was an oak plank-and-muntin screen
between this room and the hall but only the headbeam now remains. The hall crossbeam
has deep soffit chamfers with bar run-out stops and there is a rubble and cob crosswall
between the hall and former inner parlour (now the C19 kitchen). It contains a late
Cl6-early C17 oak Tudor arched doorframe. The inner room/parlour has an axial beam,
soffit-chamfered with scroll stops and the joists have the same finish. The stone
rubble fireplace has an oak lintel, its finish obscure and the left end carried on a
shaped oak corbel. In the C19 a large oven was inserted to the rear and a cream oven
inserted to the left side. To left is a blocked doorway of unknown function. The
newel stair has stone rubble steps with thick oak treads. On the landing oak door-
frames lead to the principal chambers, that to the hall having a chamfered surround
with scroll stops. The hall chamber fireplace is blocked but its oak lintel shows.
The first floor doors have plain and sturdy carpentry detail and some may be older
than the C19.
The roof is largely inaccessible. However it can be seen over the former inner room/
parlour where it comprises common rafter couples pegged together at the apex without
a ridge and supported on purlins slung between the crosswalls. It and the thatch are
smoke-blackened from an open hearth fire suggesting an early C16 open hall-house
original for the house. Over the rest only the plastered over bases of the trusses
show suggesting an A-frame truss roof.

Listing NGR: SS7642509347

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26542702

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)