Description

SX 88 SE
6/23

ASHTON
HIGHER ASHTON
The Bakehouse

30.6.61

GV
II
House. Circa early C16 origins remodelled circa early/mid C17. Whitewashed and
rendered, probably cob and stone rubble; right end stack and axial stack; thatched
roof, gabled at ends.
Plan: 3 room and through passage plan (front door to passage blocked), lower end to
the right, hall stack backing on to passage, unheated inner room. The house
originated as a late medieval open hall arrangement and appears to have been floored
in 2 phases with the inner room jettied into the hall. C20 rear lean-to.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front, the eaves thatch eyebrowed over
the first floor windows; entrance to through passage now replaced by second window
from the left. 2 light C19 or early C20 timber casements with glazing bars except
for the similar 3-light hall window. Present entrance is a rear doorway into the
inner room.
Interior: Good survival of interior features. The plank and muntin screen at the
higher end of the hall survives, the muntins chamfered on the hall side with pyramid
stops at hall bench level. The hall has a slender moulded jetty beam and no other
cross beams except a half beam with a chamfer and scroll stop at the fireplace end;
long scratch-moulded axial joists between jetty and half-beam. Moulded brackets,
probably C17, are fixed between the half beam and the replaced lintel of the open
fireplace which has 1 granite and 1 stone rubble jamb. Thick cross wall between
lower end room and passage; lower end room with roughly-chamfered axial beam and a
probably C18 or C19 fireplace, C20 stair against rear wall, position of C17 stair
possibly adjacent to hall stack. The lower end wall of the hall has a closed truss
above with an exposed section of smoke-blackened wattle and daub; closed truss above
jetty. First floor room above inner room retains part of a moulded C17 plaster
cornice.
Roof: Not thoroughly inspected but of jointed cruck construction and heavily sooted
above the hall, complete with sooted rafters, battens, thatch and diagonally-set
ridge. The lower end closed truss is sooted on the hall side and the timbers over
the inner room also appear to be smoke-blackened; roof space over lower end not
inspected at time of survey (1986).
An attractive evolved house in a prominent position in Higher Ashton. Group value
with Pitmans (q.v.) opposite and No 1, Ridgeway.

Listing NGR: SX8565884672

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26618598

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)