Description

UPLOWMAN
ST 01 NW
4/166
- Middle Coombe Farmhouse
5.4.66 including rear court yard walls
GV
II*
Farmhouse. Late C16 - early C17 (probably an earlier core), late C19 modernisation
with contemporary stairblock and outshots, renovated circa 1960. Plastered stone
rubble, probably with some cob, brick late C19 outshots; stone rubble stacks topped
with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof, gate to outshot.
Plan and development: the main block faces south-west and is built diagonally
across the hillslope, the right south-east end terraced into it. The house has a 4-
room-and-through-passage plan. At the left (north-west) end the present kitchen was
formerly an inner room parlour with a projecting rear lateral stack. Next to it,
the former hall has a projecting rear lateral stack. Alongside, at the upper end,
the original stairblock has been converted to cupboards. Below, that is to say
right (south-east) of the passage, there is a service end with a 2-room plan. This
has been much rebuilt but apparently has always been 2 rooms. The first of these is
said to have had a rear corner diagonal stack, probably secondary. The
kitchen/bakehouse was in a detached rear block (see below). As far as can be seen
this is a single phase late 16 - early C17 house in which the hall was floored over
from the start. In the late C19 a rear outshot was built across the back of the
hall and passage and at this time the original stair was replaced by one there. The
2-storey porch appears to have been added at the same time. The house is 2 storeys.
Exterior: the front is quite remarkable since it retains a high proportion of it
original windows. It has a not quite symmetrical 2:1:2 window front arranged around
airoughly central gabled 2-storey porch. This has an outer segmental arch and first
floor late C19 horned 4-pane sash. The passage front doorway contains a
contemporary plank door. To left is the original oak-framed hall window; 6 lights
with ovolo-moulded mullions, central king mullion and central transom. The master
chamber directly above has a similar window frame but not quite as tall. Left of
these the inner room has an original 4-light window with oak ovolo-moulded mullions
and the window above has richly-moulded oak headbeam. To right of the porch only
the first floor windows are original with ovolo-moulded mullions; the ground floor
windows are C20 casements with glazing bars. The original windows all have C19 and
C20 glazing bars except the first floor right end window which contains rectangular
panes of leaded glass. The roof is gable-ended. On the right (south-east) end
there is a first floor doorway directly off the terrace.
Good interior: most of the carpentry and some of the joinery is original. The
wainscotting in the passage was made up in the C20 from pieces of C17 oak small
field panelling. The service end has been altered in the C19 and C20 and all that
shows at ground floor level is an unstopped soffit-chamfered crossbeam in the first
of the 2 rooms on the other (upper) side of the passage is the hall. It is lined
with probobably original oak small field panelling with lozenge motifs in the
frieze. The axial beams have double ovolo mouldings with bar scroll stops. The
joists are exposed, plain and square in section and there are above them wide oak
floorboards running along the gaps between the joists. The fireplace is blocked by
a- C19 chimneypiece and the cupboard alongside to left is thought to be a conversion
from the original stair turret. In the inner room the hall-side crosswall is lined
by oak small field panelling but the fireplace here is blocked. On the first floor
original oak doorframes to the inner room and hall chambers have ogee-moulded
surrounds with bar-scroll stops. Since the mouldings face into the rooms they are
thought to have come off the original stair landing. In the hall chamber the upper
end is lined with a very good length of C17 wainscotting small field oak panelling
divided into bays by fluted pilasters and with a frieze of carved ascanthus leaves
with shields. The roof is carried on a series of jointed cruck trusses (the bases
are plastered over but their shape can be seen). The main partitions are closed
trusses with oak framing. The roof is clean throughout. The rest of the joinery
detail, including the main stair, is C19.
A rear courtyard is enclosed by a tall stone rubble wall. In fact the outer rear
walls are those of a detached kitchen/bakehouse block, probably contemporary with
the original main house. Blocked windows in its back wall can clearly be made out
and it also includes a large kitchen fireplace with side oven and soffit-chamfered
oak lintel.
This is an exceptionally well-preserved late C16 - early C17 farmhouse which also
forms part of a very good group with its gate house (q.v) and early farmbuildings.

Listing NGR: ST0003517037

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17531406

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)