Description

KINGS NYMPTON SS 62 SE 1/138 West Hele Farmhouse 15.9.76 - II Farmhouse. Probably late C15, with C17 and C18 alterations, extended at rear in early C19. Painted rendered stone rubble and cob. Half-hipped thatch roof. Brick stack at left end and brick shaft to rear lateral hall stack which is enclosed by the gable-ended rear wing which has asbestos slate roof with brick stack at right end. Plan: 3-room and through-passage plan with lower end to left, the hall/through passage partition removed in C20 when staircase was inserted in former passage. 2- storey parallel service range to rear of hall and inner room and single storey outshut to rear of lower end. Development: the remarkably intact roof structure is smoke-blackened from end to end with closed trusses on the lower side of the former passage and at upper end of hall, both with partitions smoke-blackened on the hall side only, suggesting the lower end and inner room were ceiled first, the hall last. The heavy smoke-blackening and the rough ceiling beams throughout suggest a relatively late date for the sequence, probably well into the C17, the hall possibly even ceiled in the C18. Exterior: 2 storeys. 4-window range. C20 fenestration. Gabled thatch roof to brick porch with shaped bargeboards. Interior. Single cross ceiling beams to all 3 principal rooms, all unchamfered. Cambered hall fireplace lintel replaced in C20. Internal cupboard with raised and fielded panelled doors to front wall. Stair originally beside stack on lower side. C19 joinery principally intact. Rear wing has kitchen fireplace with chamfered timber lintel, bread oven and C19 brick oven to base of hearth. Roof: remarkably intact late medieval roof structure, with 4 cruck trusses, all of which are different. Over the inner room/hall partition is a jointed cruck truss with a cranked morticed and tenoned collar. The purlins are lightly trenched. Most of the original partition infill below the truss has been removed but the cob packing between the truss and rafters survives which is smoke-blackened on the hall side only. The second truss over the hall is a raised cruck with cranked morticed and tenoned collar and an unusual apex consisting of a double yoke, the upper yoke supporting the diagonally set ridge purlin. The third truss over the lower end is also a raised cruck but with an arched collar with a thin soffit chamfer. These 3 trusses are situated to form 4 roughly equal-sized bays. However, over the partition between the lower end and passage is a fourth truss with straight principals of a much lighter scantling with an X apex and a thin halved and lapped cambered collar. The wattle and daub partition is largely intact below the collar, smoke-blackened on the hall side. Above the collar horizontal planking has been nailed to the face of the truss and is also smoke-blackened. The truss itself is more heavily smoke- blackened on the hall side and may therefore be a later insertion, the purlins being interrupted at this point and merely resting on the backs of the principals. At each end, the roof has been modified to a hipped structure re-using some of the rafters. Immediately to the lower side of the hall truss, the battens to each side of the ridge have been removed, and a peg-hole through the centre of the collar of the hall truss suggests a possible smoke louvre may have existed. All the roof members, including the battens, rafters and the entire underside of the thatch are very heavily smoke-blackened, strongly suggesting the hall was ceiled at a relatively late date.

Listing NGR: SS6669220896

External Links

• Wikidata Q26611315

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Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)