The Lake Farm, Pendock, Redmarley D'Abitot, Gloucestershire

Summary

The Lake, Pendock, a detached agricultural dwelling thought to date from the early C18, with the associated north-west range of agricultural buildings, dating from the C18 and early C19.

Description

Agricultural worker's cottage, thought to date from the early C18, with later modifications and additions.
MATERIALS: the timber-framed house has panels of brick infill. The south elevation has been rendered with roughcast. The pitched roof is covered with clay tiles. The external chimney stack is of brick, with tiled offsets. The eastern extension is of brick with a tiled roof.
PLAN: The footprint of the building is rectangular, on a west-east axis. There is an extension to the east, dating from the mid-C20 – historic mapping indicates that this replaces an earlier distinct block which projected to the north. Internally, the two-storey house has a very simple two-room plan, with two rooms to each storey. The principal entrance opens directly into the western ground-floor room. The two storeys are connected by a stair which rises in the north-eastern part of the building.
EXTERIOR: in the south-facing entrance elevation, the doorway is placed slightly towards the west – not its original position. Set within the timber door-surround is a planked door. The fenestration is not entirely regular: two window openings to the ground floor are of slightly different sizes, with smaller horizontal first-floor windows above. Immediately to the east of the door is a further, narrow, window. The window openings may correspond with those originally in place, but have been modified and probably enlarged, and now have C20 tiled cills and timber lintels, and hold C20 timber frames. In the north elevation, the square timber framing is exposed, infilled with whitewashed brick panels. A small metal-framed window has been inserted beneath the eaves towards the centre of the building, lighting the western first-floor room. Resting against the lower part of the building is a lightweight lean-to construction, with a corrugated iron roof, resting on posts to the east, and enclosed with timber boarding to the west; this part of the building is not of special interest. Built against the east wall is the C20 brick lean-to kitchen extension, with entrance to north, its roof sloping from the level of the eaves; this part of the building is of lesser interest*. Above, the timber framing of the gable is visible. The west elevation is dominated by the broad external stack, widening towards ground level, its uppermost part rebuilt. Extending from the north-west corner is a small early-C20 lean-to, designed to accommodate an un-plumbed lavatory.
INTERIOR: the cottage is essentially of a two-room plan, to both ground and first floors. On the ground floor, the main south entrance leads directly into the sitting room, which has one lateral beam, chamfered and stopped at both ends; the south end of the beam has been cut to accommodate the door. The fireplace, in the west wall, is a mid-C20 replacement. A raised doorway leads into the eastern room, which has a single axial beam, also chamfered and stopped. The north section of this room is partitioned off to house the stair, accessed by a door (the door is currently off its hinges, but in-situ), with a low cupboard to the west. Within the stair enclosure, to east, another cupboard. The stair rises westwards and curves to the south, arriving at the centre of the first floor. This upper storey has wide timber floorboards. The eastern room is irregularly shaped, due to partitioning accommodating the stair. The western room is accessed by a very low door; the fireplace in this room has been blocked. The ceilings of the upper rooms follow the line of the roof, enclosing the structure, and there is no access to the apex. The eastern kitchen extension is accessed internally though a doorway in the eastern ground-floor room – the opening and its door pre-date the current extension. Within the kitchen the timber framing of the external eastern wall is visible, though painted. All the planked doors within the house date from the C18 or C19.

AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS
To the north of the cottage are the agricultural buildings, forming the west and north sides of a small yard; there appear to have been buildings in these positions by 1831.
A timber-framed BARN, thought to date from the C18, stretches along the west side of the yard, on a north-south alignment. The pitched roof structure is complete, consisting of king-post trusses, with ridge beam, purlins and rafters. The third, northernmost truss is queen-post. The timber appears to be pit-sawn, and the structure is pegged. A low lean-to* running along its length on the east side was added in the early C20 and is not of special interest. The wall framing is substantially intact, with pit-sawn vertical posts fixed to a head plate and cill beam; the brick plinth has partially collapsed. There are C20 metal doors in an original wide opening at the south end of the west wall. The walls are clad with C20 timber, with an area of earlier cladding to the east wall, with a planked door and window with shutter, and earlier cladding to the south wall. The roof covering is now of corrugated metal.
The CIDER HOUSE stands against the south wall of the barn. Smaller and later than the barn, this is also timber framed, on a brick plinth (partly replaced with breeze-block), with a pitched roof. The framing is probably early-C19, with some renewal, but the roof structure is C20, and the walls are covered with C20 cladding. There is a door in the west wall. An early-C20 lean-to* standing against the east wall is not of special interest. Inside the building is a stone cider press, with its runner stone and pole; this appears to be of red Herefordshire sandstone conglomerate and may have originated in that county.
To the north of the yard, a C19 STONE-BUILT BARN* and attached ANIMAL SHELTER*. These later structures are not of special interest.

*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act'), it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

The site now known as The Lake Farm, Pendock, is thought to date from the early C18. The cottage, and the north-west range of agricultural buildings, are shown on the 1838 tithe map. The group stands in an open position, with the garden and orchard associated with the cottage to the south and west, and fields beyond.

The cottage is thought to have been constructed in the early C18 as an agricultural worker's cottage, and has remained in that use until recently. The footprint of the cottage has remained unchanged since the surveys were completed for the tithe map of 1838, and the Ordnance Survey map published in 1884, apart from the addition of a C20 lean-to kitchen extension to the east, thought to have replaced an earlier distinct block. It is clear that the building has undergone some considerable change during the course of its history. It is thought that the brick panels filling the timber frame may replace wattle and daub and that the roof tiles may replace thatch or stone tiles, the front door is not in its original position, and the chimney stack may be a later replacement; internally, there has also been modification. It appears that very little substantial change has occurred inside the building since the C19/early C20. The building is currently empty.

Standing around a small yard to the north of the cottage is a group of agricultural buildings, dating from between the C18 and C20.

Reasons for Listing

The Lake Farm, Pendock, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historic interest: as a modest agricultural dwelling, thought to date from the early C18, with associated outbuildings;
* Intactness: the survival, with some relatively minor changes, of the two-room plan, and the lack of internal alteration since the C19/early C20.
* Materials and construction: the timber framing characteristic of the region remains intact and largely visible, despite some rendering, as do chamfered beams and joinery within the building;
* Agricultural elements: for the west range of outbuildings, dating from before 1840, the barn having a good pegged timber frame, and the cider house retaining a complete cider press of a distinctive regional type.

External Links

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