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

• Wikidata Q17531406

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Recommended Books

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide