Description

SS 81 SE CRUWYS MORCHARD
2/66 Forke Farmhouse
-
II
Farmhouse. Circa late C16, possibly a remodelling of a late medieval house, some
later C17 alterations, C19 fenestration. Colourwashed rendered cob and stone ; slate
roof to front of ridge, corrugated asbestos to rear (formerly thatched), roof gabled
at ends ; right end stone stack with stone and brick shaft, left end stack with brick
shaft, large projecting front lateral stack with stone shaft.
Plan: Complex evolution. The present plan is a 3 room and cross passage arrangement
(lower end to the right) with a rear dairy. A front right wing at right angles to
the lower end is a 2-storey farmbuilding. The house may have begun as a late
medieval open hall but with only very limited access to the roofspace tis is not
established as a fact. The left and right hand ends of the front elevation are
slightly set back, indicating some rebuilding in the centre although the ground floor
carpentry details throughout the range are consistent with a late C16 date. The
quality of the carpentry is high and moulded beams in the inner room (to the left)
indicate that it functioned as a parlour ; the lower end may have been a kitchen with
the hall used as the principal living room. The lower end partition of the cross
passage has been moved to the left and if the partition with the hall is in its
original position the passage would have been unusually wide. A single storey
outshut with a catslide roof incorporates an external stair leading off the hall and
also a dairy. Parts of the rear wall at first floor level are only partition
thickness between the jointed crucks, which is puzzling.
2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front with an attractive set of C19 1, 2 and 3-
light small pane timber casements and the centre of the range slightly broken
forward. Front door to cross passage to right of centre. At right angles to the
main range at the right end is a 2-storey farm building, gabled to the front with a
corrugated iron and asbestos roof. The farmbuilding has external steps up to a loft
entrance on the front end and the roof is brought down as a catslide over a lean-to
adjoining the left return. The lean-to gives sheltered access to a door into the
lower end room of the farmhouse.
Interior High quality circa late C16 carpentry survives throughout the range. The
hall has a C20 grate to the lateral stack, possibly concealing an earlier fireplace
and a very fine set of deeply hollow-chamfered cross beams with keeled stops, a rare
detail in the region. A chamfered step-stopped doorway on the rear wall leads to the
stair. The inner room has elaborately moulded crossbeams and a modern grate,
possibly concealing an earlier fireplace. The lower end room has fine, very deeply-
chamfered cross beams with large roll stops. The left hand cross beam has mortises
for a plank and muntin screen which no longer exists. The fireplace is partly
blocked but an early lintel and jambs probably survive. The 2 right hand rooms on
the first floor open into one another, the room over the hall has a blocked, probably
C19 fireplace. Considerable change in floor level between the room over the hall and
the room over the lower end, which has a higher floor level. The roof is of jointed
cruck construction, side-pegged and the first floor rooms are plastered up close to
the apex revealing 2 tiers of purlins. Straight, probably C19 collars have been
added to the trusses below the level of the ceiling plaster.
Access to the roofspace is very limited but what is visible of the old timbers
appears to be clean (i.e. not sooted) above the lower end room and most of the hall ;
the truss between hall and inner room is definitely darker than the others but
without a closer inspection it is not possible to establish smoke-blackening
positively. A new roof has been put over the old timbers over the hall and lower end
and carried down as the outshut roof. Large sections of the first floor rear wall of
the main range between the crucks are thin partitions, sections of which are daub and
wattle.
According to Margaret C.S. Cruwys, Forke Farm was first documented in the C15. In
1510 "Forkeshey" in the Manor Court Roll was held by Thomas Leigh of John Cruwys Esq.
for the term of life. "Forkeshayes" was sold away form the Cruwys family between
1836 and 1837 to Andrew Elworthy.
Forke farmhouse is a fine vernacular building with high quality carpentry details
which have some similarity to Somerset carpentry.
Cruwys, Margaret C.S., A Cruwys Morchard Notebook, 1066-1874 (1939).

Listing NGR: SS8535711063

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26552404

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

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record