Appletona, farmhouse and cottage, Alpington, Norfolk

Summary

A C16 farmhouse and attached cottage altered following a fire in 1969.

Description

A C16 farmhouse and attached cottage altered following a fire in 1969.

MATERIALS

The house is constructed of brick walling with structural timbers of pine. The attached cottage is flint walled, and the whole building is roofed in Norfolk reed thatch.

PLAN

The parlour and part of the hall of an earlier three-celled plan remain. The house and cottage are now joined in an L-shaped layout.

EXTERIOR

Appletona is mostly two storeyed and covered in Norfolk reed thatch with an ornamental block ridge.

The principal elevation faces south and is five bays in width, four of which are walled in diaper pattern brickwork. Some evidence of change is apparent: there are four tie bars in the historic brick, and the easternmost bay has been rebuilt in C20 brick laid in English bond. The windows are regular C20 timber framed casements (as they are throughout); one bay features slim single casements that indicate the historic location of a stair compartment.

The west elevation of the house shows many areas of repair and alteration, including a blocked window at first floor. A small, possibly original, window survives at ground floor. The brickwork of the gable at roof level features a tumbled brick parapet and is laid in Flemish bond, suggesting an early C18 date.

The north elevation of the house is walled in brick and flint rubble, with even courses of brickwork above the cil-height of the first floor windows.

Adjoining the eastern bay of the house is a two-storey link that connects to the cottage, and beyond that to a late C20 single storey rendered extension. The cottage has a single chimney stack at the north end, and has irregularly spaced windows. The walling is partly-rendered flint rubble with reconstructed brick quoins on the west elevation.

On the east elevation there is a single storey flint outshot that projects between the corner of the cottage and the link to the house. A small area of historic brickwork remains at the base of the house but most has been rebuilt following the fire of 1969.

A well marked on historic OS maps survives beneath a concrete pump base on the north side of the house. It measures 1.5m in diameter and has a depth of 17m.

INTERIOR

The principal interior spaces occupy the western parts of the house and the ground floor of the cottage. Features of interest include structural beams of early pine with chamfers and stops, a large fireplace with a (blocked) bread oven in the parlour, and a panelled wall in the hall. The panelling, possibly a re-sited screen, is formed of moulded posts and boards of elm without any rails.

At first floor the house retains original wide floorboards in the western rooms. Some timbers display carpenters' marks. The room above the parlour has a substantial brick fireplace. On the south side of the principal chimney stack the tread of an earlier staircase survives. In the room above the hall the words 'MINDE YE HEADE' have been carved into one timber, probably a C20 addition.

The cottage has one large open space at ground floor with a fireplace at the north end. The beams are especially large and roughly hewn, with chamfers and stops.

Throughout the entire building the doors are arts and crafts style plank and batten doors made of oak.

History

Appletona is a substantial mid-C16 vernacular farmhouse that has been extended and altered in various phases. At the time of its construction it was two storeys in height and probably had a three-cell floor plan, with additional bays for a stair compartment between the parlour (left hand side) and the hall (centre), and perhaps a cross passage between the hall and the service end of the building (right hand side). The principal feature of the main elevation, its extensive diaper pattern brickwork, dates to that original phase.

A contemporary (C16) cottage of massed flint construction stands to the rear of the service end and was originally a separate structure. It is one of several buildngs that historically formed part of the farmstead around the main house, including a barn to the south-east that was reconstructed in the later C20.

The brickwork of the western gable suggests that an early C18 period of reconstruction replaced some part of the roof structure, with a tumbled-brick gable in Flemish bond replacing earlier fabric above the line of the eaves.

The house, cottage and barn all appear on the 1806 Enclosure Map, the 1838 Tithe Map for Yelverton and Alpington, and the first edition Ordnance Survey. The latter shows a large pond in front of house, possibly formed from a clay pit used in brickmaking, and a draw well in the rear yard. The pond and well survive, though the latter has a modern cap.

In the C19 the landholding around the house included 5 acres of fruit and nut orchards, meadows and vegetable production, reflecting a strong local history of market gardening. Sales particulars from the mid C20 show that there were once store sheds, kennels, piggeries, and greenhouses on the same land.

In 1969 a fire destroyed the barn, most of the eastern bay of the house and its thatched roof structure, along with the thatched roof of the rear cottage. Subsequently the barn was rebuilt on a smaller scale, the eastern bay of the house was largely reconstructed in contrasting brickwork, the roof structure was modernised and rethatched, and the house was joined to the cottage on both floors. A chimney stack that stood within the eastern bay of the house was removed, and a porch was added to the front elevation.

A cellar is reported to have existed beneath the parlour but was in-filled in the post-fire period.

In 2018 the house, formerly known as the Thatched Cottage, was renamed Appletona.

Reasons for Listing

Appletona, a mid-C16 farmhouse and cottage altered following a fire in 1969, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its display of local distinctiveness, using building materials such as Norfolk reed thatch and locally produced brick;
* for the high quality of the diaper pattern brickwork on the south elevation;
* for the survival of key internal features, especially the ground floor panelling;

Historic interest:

* as a C16 vernacular farmhouse, surviving with a (latterly attached) contemporary outbuilding;
* for the layers of historical value found in the buildings clear phases of evolution;

Group value:

* for the building's relationship to the other Grade II listed buildings that make up the hamlet of Alpington: Meadow Cottage (1373075), the Old Hall (1050657), and the barn north east of the Old Hall (1050658).

External Links

Historic England Listing

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