Cockpit Hole Farmhouse and attached barn, Great Kingshill, Buckinghamshire

Summary

Farmhouse and adjoining barn. Early-C19 with the house extended to adjoin the barn in the late-C19.

Description

Farmhouse and adjoining barn. Early C19 with the house extended to adjoin the barn in the late C19.

HOUSE
MATERIALS: the house is of coursed un-knapped flint with brick dressings and chimneys and pitched clay-tile roofs.

PLAN: the house faces north-west with a late-C19 link to the barn at its north-east end. The house is of two storeys (plus cellar to the south-western half), rectangular in plan with a large end chimney stack at the south-western end and another projecting from the rear wall. At the north-eastern end of the original house is a projecting, late-C19, two-storey link range, filling what was originally a space between the house and barn, and sharing a roofline with the barn. This has a chimney at the junction of the original house passing through the ridge. There is a small modern weatherboarded, single-storey and flat-roofed rear extension to the link range. Internally, the original house is of two rooms (a kitchen to the north-east and parlour to the south-west), divided by a small front entrance lobby and central staircase. The link building has a single room with a lobby and WC to the rear. The first floor has two bedrooms, either side of the stairs, with a bathroom in the link building which also includes a fruit store at the far end, accessed by ladder from outside. The cellar is accessed by steps from the kitchen below the stairs.

EXTERIOR: the house is of two storeys (plus cellar to the south-western half), rectangular in plan with a large end chimney stack at the south-western end and another projecting from the rear wall. At the north-eastern end of the original house is a projecting, late-C19, two-storey link range, filling what was originally a space between the house and barn, and sharing a roofline with the barn. This has a chimney at the junction of the original house passing through the ridge. There is a small modern weatherboarded, single-storey and flat-roofed rear extension to the link range. The principal (north-west) three-bay elevation of the house has rusticated brick quoins and a dog-tooth brick cornice, and is broadly symmetrical with fenestration either side of a centrally placed front entrance. This has a rusticated brick surround with a segmental arched lintel and a braced plank and batten door in a timber frame. A brick on one side of the door is enscribed with the initials ‘EN’ and on the other side is the inscription ‘SN 1834’. The two ground floor windows are tripartite, six-pane timber casements in rusticated brick surrounds with segmental arched lintels and a brick stringcourse below. The two first floor windows are tripartite, single-pane timber casements in square-headed openings, again with rusticated brick surrounds and stringcourse below.

The later single-bay link range projects forward from the line of the original house with a single window in a square-headed opening with brick surround, tile sill and metal-framed triple casement. The upper floor is lit by a flat-roofed dormer window with a double metal-framed casement. The southern return has been altered with a brick segmental arch indicating a doorway or window now blocked with bands of flint and brickwork.

The rear (south-east) elevation has irregular fenestration with a single tripartite timber casement in a square-headed opening on the first floor. Below this are two windows with segmental heads, the ground floor one with metal-framed casements and the other one lighting the cellar. On the other side of the chimney, which has a corbelling below the eaves, is another window on the ground floor with metal-framed casements in a square-headed opening, modified from the original segmental arched opening. The link range has a pair of ground floor metal-framed casements in square openings (one now within the modern weatherboarded extension). On the first-floor is a timber door giving access to the fruit store.

The south-eastern end elevation has a large brick chimney projecting from the gable with tiled slopes and a later additional flue.

INTERIOR: the parlour has a chamfered spine beam, a four-panelled door and matchboard panelling below the windows. There are two built-in cupboards, a two-panel one beside the chimney breast and a two-stage corner cupboard under the stairs. The fireplace has a replacement timber surround and a mid-C20 range inserted. The kitchen has a four-plank door to the stair lobby and seven-plank door to the link range. All other fittings are late C20. The original fireplace has been replaced and has a C20 stove. The room in the link range has a 1930s brick fireplace. The bedrooms are plain with four-plank doors off the stairs. None of the rooms have covings. The fruit store occupies the south-eastern half of the first floor of the link range.

BARN
The adjoining barn is timber-framed on a flint plinth; it is weatherboarded with a clay-tile roof. It is of three bays with an aisle on the south-east side.

The threshing door on the north-west elevation is boarded over and only one of the pair of doors on the south-east side survives. The south-east aisle has a door at each end, that at the southern end being a modern replacement.

Inside, there are queen-post trusses with the original tie beams, posts, purlins, rafters, most of the wall posts, studs and corner bracing. Many additional modern timbers have been inserted to strengthen the structure including cross beams and alternate rafters. All the rafters to the aisle are modern. The flint plinth has been replaced in the north-west corner with modern brickwork. The north-west side of the south-west bay has half-height flint walling with brick quoins and a small window with brick jambs, blocked by the external weatherboarding. There is a blocked doorway in the later brick wall to the link building. The two end bays have earthen floors and the central bay has a raised timber threshing floor with low timber partitions to the outer bays.

History

Cockpit Hole Farm (named after Cockpit Hole, a waterfilled geological feature just to the west of the farm) dates from the early-C19. A brick with an inscribed date next to the front door of the farmhouse gives a date of 1834. However, the fact that the date is preceded by the Initials ‘SN’ (and there is also another set of initials, ‘EN’ on the other side of the door) suggests that the date may relate to a date of significance to the Nash family, who have occupied the house for nearly all its history, rather than the exact date of its construction.

The 1841 census entry for ‘Cockpitt Hole’ shows Joseph Langston as the farmer and James Nash, born in 1811, as a farm labourer, along with his wife Sarah and four children aged between seven and four-months. The tithe records for 1843, however, give the landowner and occupant of the farm as James Nash and the 1861 census shows Cockpit Farm as occupied by James Nash (born 1810 rather than 1811), a farmer of 46 acres employing two men, repeated in 1871 but farming 44 acres and employing a man and a boy. The farm has remained in the Nash family until today (2022).

The 1843 Tithe map shows the farmhouse with a detached barn directly to the north-east, a cow shed further to the north-east and a granary or small barn to the east of the barn. By the time of the 1898 Ordnance Survey map, the farmhouse had been extended to the north-east, infilling the space between the house and barn. The 1925 OS map shows a lean-to added to the north-east side of the cowshed. Additional barns were added to the east of the site in the late C20 and rebuilt after a fire in 2001. In the early C21 the cowshed was partially destroyed in a storm.

Reasons for Listing

Cockpit Hole Farmhouse and attached barn, probably dating from around 1830, are listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a good example of a modest, pre-1850, vernacular farmhouse of good-quality craftsmanship with its contemporary threshing barn which, unusually, retains its threshing floor;

* the house and barn are largely unaltered externally apart from the addition of a late-C19 link range and retain a significant proportion of their historic fabric;

* the house retains its simple original plan and, despite the loss of some fixtures, contains a good level of its original fittings including its stair, doors and fitted cupboards. It provides a good illustration of the simplicity of layout and fittings of such a dwelling of this period.

Historic interest:

* the buildings provide evidence of historic local agricultural practices and vernacular building traditions.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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