Description

BITTERLEY

SO57NE Upper Ledwyche Farmhouse and horse
482-1/6/65 engine-house to rear

II*

Farmhouse. C15/C16, with C17 staircase wing and mid C19
refronting and rear wings. Brick, coursed rubble, rendered
timber-frame. Plain-tile and slate roofs. Deep eaves and
dormer bargeboards to front. Large projecting stone eaves
stack to rear with 4 brick shafts, 3 with star-shaped shafts
and caps, one C20 rebuild. Stone ridge stack to rear wing with
brick shaft. L-shaped plan of main 2-bay core with end
extension of cross wing extended in turn with rear wing. Horse
engine-house in angle of the 2 wings.
EXTERIOR: south-east front is 2-storey and attic, 4-window
range of 6/6 sashes flanked with 8/8 sashes, with 3/3 sashes
flanked by 4/4 sashes set in brick semi-dormers. Panelled
front door to centre left with projecting gabled open porch.
All windows with cambered brick lintels and stone sills. Brick
attic-floor projecting storey band. Left-hand gable return:
stone gable-end with brick-blocked attic window. Remains of
timber-framed end truss in gable head indicating brick
refronting. Right-hand return: brick gable-end with C20
casement, and ground-floor boarded door. Projecting C19
service wing extension and beyond to right main rear extension
range.
Rear: rendered range with central tall staircase window.
2-light casement to right, 2-light casements at both floors.
To left is projecting stone stack masked by single-storey C19
hipped tiled kitchen extension. To far left is advanced cross
wing gable-end, masked by projecting rear wing of
single-storey and attic, with tiled gabled roof. Rear wing
return wall: rubble stone. To right 3-light casement and tiled
gabled dormer over, also with 3-light casement. To left plain
boarded doors.
INTERIOR: main 2-bay core is a C15/C16 former open hall with 2
intermediate open arch-braced hammerbeam trusses per bay.
Hammerbeam trusses have cambered collars with twin raking
struts over and arched-braces set into swept principals in
turn set on hammerbeams. Hammerbeams supported on
deep-chamfered swept hammer-braces projecting from
deep-chamfered wall posts with chamfer-stop at first-floor
level indicating framing for an upper hall. Hall mid-truss is
open: cambered tie beam and collar with vertical strut flanked
by twin raking struts under collar and twin raking strut over.
End truss is close-studded up to straight tie beam with 5
vertical struts to collar and 2 vertical struts over. Double
trenched purlin roof with some surviving swept chamfered wind
braces. Purlins tenoned into intermediate truss principals.
Smoke-blackened rafters survive on the north pitch, the south
pitch having been raised in C19. Main members have hollow
chamfers with run-out stops. Hammerbeam, wall plate, and
mid-truss tie beam have multi-profiled chamfer mouldings.
Inserted attic floor has C17 plastered cornice and ceiling
roundel. Square framing in first-floor cross partitions. Rear
cross wing gable-end truss has cambered tie beam with 8
vertical struts under and 4 over the collar. Vestigial timber
framing in rear wing.
C19 hipped slate-roofed horse engine-house with rubble walls
continuing to create rear courtyard with the arms of the
farmhouse.

Listing NGR: SO5538479209

Recommended Books

• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)