Quarhouse Farm, Brimscombe and Thrupp, Gloucestershire

Summary

A house and attached stable range, dating from the C17 and C18, with later associated agricultural buildings.

Description

A house and attached stable range, dating from the C17 and C18 respectively.

MATERIALS
Local limestone rubble, with limestone dressings. The roof of the main range is covered in Cotswold stone slates. The additional range is covered in clay Roman tiles. Cast-iron rainwater heads and downpipes.

PLAN
The main range is almost square on plan, with a gabled central cross-wing, and a small dairy at the south-western end. A long range, incorporating part of the earlier house, adjoins at the north-eastern end and projects south-eastwards. The alignment of this range kinks slightly at the point at which the later stables addition joins the domestic range. Lean-to porches are attached along the south front of the house, and to the north end of the wing. Outbuildings are ranged loosely around a yard to the south and east of the house (not included in the listing).

EXTERIOR
The mid-C17 house is built from limestone rubble with large, roughly-squared limestone quoins. The windows are stone, of two lights, with diamond mullions, under hood moulds. The elevation to the farmyard is a wide single bay, with a tall central gable to the attic storey. The ground and first floors each have two windows, under a continuous hood mould. A further similar window is set in the gable. There is a tall ashlar ridge stack rising from the south gable end, with a moulded cap and later pot. The deep roofs are steeply pitched. A later stone-built lean-to porch runs across the front of the range, with mid-C20 glazing, its roof covered in corrugated plastic sheeting; the floor is laid with large stone flags. There is a plank door at the western end. A door within the lean-to gives access into the attached range at its northern end. A single-bay, single-storey dairy with a steeply-pitched roof is attached at the southern end of the main range, with a plank door. The rear of the house is a wide single bay with a central gable matching that to the front elevation. The ground floor has two deep mullioned and transomed windows with a continuous hood mould, whose extent indicates that these windows were altered historically, probably added in place of three smaller windows similar to those in the rest of the building. The first floor has a single window to the right, and the attic a single window in the gable. The roofs are covered in Cotswold stone slates, laid in diminishing courses. Attached to the left, and set slightly back from the main range, is the western end of the attached range, which is lower than the main range, its roof with swept eaves. This range is of two storeys, with the attic of the domestic range wholly contained within the roof space. This has a small lean-to porch to the ground floor, with a part-glazed door and mid-C20 glazing, its roof covered in corrugated plastic sheeting. To the right is a small, later window lighting the winder stair, and above, another similar lighting the stair between first and attic storeys. A small stone stack rises from the apex of the gable. The inner elevation, facing the farmyard, is in two sections. The wide bay closest to the house has three-light diamond-mullioned windows to ground and first floors, that to the ground floor with a hood mould. The window above is set under the eaves. There are two small roof lights in the slope above. A tall ashlar ridge stack rises roughly centrally along the range. To its right, on a slightly difference alignment, and built into the bank to the rear, is a two-bay stable range. This has two stable doors under stone lintels to the ground floor, with two-light stone-mullioned windows above. To the right on the first floor is a row of built-in dove holes. The south-east gable end has a small timber casement window set high in the gable under a timber lintel. The rear elevation, partially set into the bank, has two casement windows to the ground floor right, to the domestic accommodation; the first floor has one, and evidence of a second having been closed. To the left, the land rises, and there are two plank taking-in doors in the first floor, with stone thresholds, which are level with the risen ground. The roof over both the earlier domestic range and the additional stable range is continuous, and covered in clay Roman tiles.

INTERIOR
The interiors of the main house and the domestic end of the wing all have steeply-chamfered ceiling beams with stops. Those in the main range have elaborate curved step stops with a bold diamond shaped, moulded button detail. Those in the wing have slightly plainer curved step stops. The ceilings are otherwise plastered. All the doorcases are wide, and pegged; those in the ground and first floors of the main range have flat-moulded architraves. Doors to the stairs are plank and batten. The remainder are generally four- or six-panelled. Fireplaces and other interior joinery date largely from the mid-C19. Window openings are deeply splayed.

The ground floor of the main range is a single large room, with exposed beams, a mid-C19 timber fireplace with the mantel shelf carried on heavy scrolled brackets and a semi-circular arched grate, and six-panelled doors to cupboards to either side of the fireplace. This adjoins the kitchen, at the northern end of the wing. This room has later C20 fittings. The room includes the winder stair to the first floor, behind a plank and batten door. The adjacent room in the wing is fitted as a mid-C19 parlour, with a fireplace matching that in the other ground floor room. The room has simple fielded panelling to dado height; the deep window seat is panelled in wide matchboard. A small hall behind the main entrance door is formed from the northern part of the room, from which it is separated by a timber-panelled partition, which incorporates and matches the door to the room. A cupboard occupying the void to the right of the chimney breast has earlier, probably C18, joinery, with the door set in the centre of a section of raised and fielded panelling with a moulded surround. The winder stair rises to the first floor, emerging on a landing with a lightweight partition to a bathroom in the northern end of the wing. Beyond this, within the wing, is a single further room with a deep recess alongside the chimney breast. In the main range, the single room has a cupboard to the left of the chimney breast with a C19 plank and batten door. The winder stair continues to the attic storey; its bottom tread has a moulding probably of the C18. The main range has a single room to the attic, with exposed roof structure, which includes chamfered purlins. The room has a wide, C17 door of three broad planks, with highly-decorative, C17 strap hinges with scrolling ends. The roof structure in the adjoining end of the wing has been modified to accommodate the upward extension of the stair, which has a small newel post at its top. From the landing, there is access to the last attic room in the wing, which is unimproved. It has broad floorboards, and the exposed roof structure includes a truss formed from tie beams and paired principals, with collar and two rows of threaded purlins, some of which have been replaced. A surviving purlin is chamfered. The room is ceiled with lath and plaster, and limewash indicates that it was previously used for food storage.

The stables extension of this range has two separate looseboxes on the ground floor and a single, open hayloft above, presently used as a workshop. The ground-floor ceiling has large, exposed, chamfered beams and joists, several roughly-hewn, with wide floorboards above. The interiors have been limewashed. The floor is laid with stone flags to one unit, the other with a later floor.

History

Quarhouse Farm appears to have been known as Quarries Farm until the early C20, named after the stone quarries just to the north of the site. Quarhouse is a small hamlet, whose first dwellings were constructed by 1687. The house at Quarhouse Farm originated in the mid-C17, probably as an L-shaped house, with a main range and gabled central cross-wing running south-west to north-east, and a further wing projecting south-eastwards from the north side; however, it is possible that this range was added very soon after the completion of the original house, but no later than the end of the C17. This range was extended further, probably in the C18, partially built into the bank behind, with stables to the ground floor and haylofts above. The winder stair at the junction between the main house and the additional wing was later extended upwards to allow access to the attic rooms in the wing, necessitating some modification of the roof structure. This is likely to have taken place in the mid-C19, when the interiors of the house were overhauled. The roof covering over the wing, including the earlier, domestic section and the later stables, was replaced later in continuous clay tile. Further outbuildings were added south and east of the farmhouse during the course of the C19 and C20, some altered further in the C20 and C21 (not included in the listing).

Reasons for Listing

Quarhouse Farm, a house of the C17, with an C18 extension and some internal updating in the C19, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* the house is a C17 building in Cotswold vernacular style, with fabric of good quality, and a high degree of survival, internally and externally; the evidence of its evolution adds to its claims to special interest;
* the good quality joinery introduced to the interior in the C18 and C19 survives well and adds to its interest.

Historic interest:
* as a house of the C17 which reflects local building traditions in its techniques, style and materials.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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.