Summary

Farmhouse thought to date from the C17, with work in the C18, C19 and C20, and an associated stable.

Description

Farmhouse thought to date from the C17, with work in the C18, C19 and C20, and an associated stable.

MATERIALS: the house is timber framed with a brick frontage and a tile roof. The stable is of brick with a tile roof.

PLAN: the house is roughly L-plan with its main range aligned east-west. The stable stands to the south-west of the house.

EXTERIOR: the front of the house is of brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with casement windows and an off-centre door under a modern porch, with a further blocked doorway between the two right bays. Windows and doors are modern, and the eaves course above the brick dentil course has been replaced. There is a base course of blue lias limestone. There are tall chimneys at each end.

To the rear is an external stack also with lower course of stone, and a lean-to verandah wraps around the rear of the property. There are modern French doors, and two dormer windows either side of the chimney. The cross wing has exposed timber framing with brick infil in its eastern wall. Some timbers have carpenters' marks. The gable end of the cross wing is brick with a modern bow window at ground floor and window under segmental head above.

There is a lean-to extension to the western side with catslide roof.

INTERIOR: the principal range contains a large central room with two large timber beams which are chamfered and stopped. The fireplace has a bressumer re-used from elsewhere. A modern stair gives access to the upper floor which retains timber floorboards and exposed timbers throughout.

The cross wing has further exposed timbers and a secondary stair.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the stable to the south-west has three lunette windows and elevations of English Garden Wall bond with queen closers to the end of each wall. The central window was originally a door. There are doors at each end with segmental heads and a taking-in door at first-floor level in the south gable end.

History

Swanbrook Farm is depicted on the tithe map of 1840 which was produced for the parish of Pirton. It is shown as a loose courtyard arrangement of buildings; the present house faces into the courtyard with buildings extending at both ends to the south, as well as a further building to the east and the south. The only building to survive from this depiction other than the house is the probable stable building to the west of the house. The property at that time was part of the nearby Croome Estate, owned by the Earl of Coventry, and was tenanted by William Taylor and Thomas Taylor.

By the time of the 1885 First Edition Ordnance Survey, the buildings to the west and south have been demolished, leaving the house and the stable and the small piggery to the rear. These are the buildings which remain today.

The dateable evidence within the house suggests that it originated in the C17 as a hall and cross wing arrangement. Timbers in the front range have chamfers and stops consistent with this date. The rear wing as it stands appears to date from the C18, and the present brick facing to the house was probably added in the early C19. The house has been modified and modernised over the course of the C20. The original listing, which dates from 1972, noted segmental-headed windows to the ground floor of the front elevation; these are no longer present.

The adjacent stable is likely to date from the late C18 or early C19.

Reasons for Listing

Swanbrook Farm with adjacent stable are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an evolved vernacular farmhouse which probably dates from the C17 and retains elements of timber framing as well as later brick refronting, which demonstrates changes in architectural fashions over time;
* for the interest of the adjacent stable with its classical architectural detailing.

Historic interest:

* as an example of a small-scale rural farmstead associated with a large country estate.

External Links

• Wikidata Q26549516

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)