Description

BLACK TORRINGTON
SS 40 NW

6/9 Higher Braundsworthy Farmhouse
-

- II*

Farmhouse. Circa 1500 probably with circa early Cl7 additions and C19 extensions.
Plastered rubble and cob walls. Gable-ended slate and concrete tile roofs. 3-
rendered stacks - the 2 gable-end ones brick and a large rendered axial stack
offset from the ridge.
Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan with the rear passage doorway blocked. Hall
stack backs onto the passage, large inner room heated by gable end fireplace. Lower
room probably has stack inserted in C18 or C19 with a further room beyond it.
Originally the house is likely to have had a 2-room and passage plan with an open
hall to the left heated by a central hearth and a solid wall dividing it from the
lower room which may have been 2-storey from the start. The inner room at the left
end appears to be a circa early C17 addition as a sizeable parlour and the small
wing behind it probably contained a stair turret originally and is more likely to be
mid C17 dating perhaps from the time when the hall was floored over and its stack
inserted. The room beyond the lower room formerly functioned as an outbuilding and
was only recently converted. Adjoining the small rear stair wing is a C20 small
wing.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front. Early C19 16-pane sash on 1st
floor to left of centre with 2 mid C20 casements to its right of 2 and 3-lights.
Below a C20 French window to the left with small-paned light adjoining to its right
and a 3-light mid C20 casement beyond. To the right is a late C20 tall 3-light
leaded pane casement. C19 plank door to right of centre with chamfered wooden arch
surviving above. Lower addition at right-hand end, formerly outbuilding and long
late circa early C19 barn projecting in wing from it.
Interior: is of considerable interest and belies the rather plain exterior. The
inner room has fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and unchamfered granite jambs.
3 ceiling beams chamfered with hollow step-stops. The thick wall dividing it from
the hall is wainscotted with C17 panelling. Hall is relatively small and has ovolo-
moulded ceiling beams with plain joists. Heavy wooden lintel to blocked fireplace.
C18 wail cupboard with fielded 2-panel doors. A C17 ovolo-moulded doorframe leads
from the passage to the hall and a similarly-moulded lintel survives over the former
back doorway. The door frame to the lower room has chamfered and stepped jambs and
lintel. On the 1st floor is another C17 chamfered doorframe. In the rear wing is a
late C17 2-panel door fielded with bolection moulding around the edges. One of the
main 1st floor rooms has had a large C13 cupboard partly built into 1 wall.
Roof: the original trusses survive over the main range. At the lower end is a
raised cruck with morticed cranked collar, threaded purlins, diagonal ridge with
triangular strengthening block below. The truss is lightly smoke-blackened. A
solid wall divides this section from the hall which is smoke-blackened on the hall
side. The hall has 2 trusses of very large scantling and heavily smoke-blackened.
The lower side are which has been cut off by the hall stack is a raised cruck the
central one is a face-pegged jointed cruck. Similar construction to the lower end
truss but the ridge has been removed. A few original rafters survive. The wall at
the higher end is smoke-blackened on the hall side, clean on the other. Over the
inner room is a cruck with sharply angled elbow, of lighter scantling than over the
nall and not smoke-blackened.
This is an interesting late medieval house which gives fairly clear evidence of its
original plan and pattern of development and preserves good quality features from
several periods little altered internally by C20 modernisation.

Listing NGR: SS4387805856

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536707

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

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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
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  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas