Farmhouse Rest Home

Summary

Former farmhouse, now residential care home. Early mid-C17, extended later C17; C18 and early-C19 alterations. Extensions dating from 1987 are not of special interest.

Reasons for Designation

No. 87 Water Lane, Totton, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a C17 timber-framed house with C18 and early-C19 alterations, which, although altered and extended in the late-C20, retains a significant portion of its historic fabric and plan;
* Regional rarity: very few vernacular houses survived the intensive C20 suburbanisation of the rural fringes of Southampton, and this confers a measure of rarity on those that remain.

History

The building appears on the 1872 OS map as part of Waterlane Farm, with a range of farm buildings to the south east around a yard. By 1933 the suburbanisation of Totton and the surrounding area was well advanced and the farm had been partially redeveloped; by the 1950s agricultural use had clearly ceased and all the farm buildings had gone.

The earliest part of the building dates probably from the early-to-mid-C17 and consists of a timber-framed, two-bay lobby-entry plan house aligned east-west, to which a wing was added on the south side in the later C17, forming an L-plan. The house was encased in brick in the C18. A two-storey front wing was added to the eastern bay and a two-storey porch in the angle, possibly in the early C19. By 1933 a further extension had been made on the east side, consisting of a narrow single-storey lean-to range abutting the front wing. The house was converted into a care home for the elderly in 1983, and in 1987 the one-storey extension was demolished and replaced with a two-storey extension which wraps around the front wing. The rear wing was also extended by one bay, and the central stack removed above ground-floor level.

Details

MATERIALS: timber framing encased in red brick, now painted; modern clay tile roof.

PLAN: at ground-floor level the C17 house plan largely survives, although a partition has been inserted on the north side of the east room to create a corridor. To the rear is an outshut. The attic has been subdivided into bedrooms and bathrooms.

EXTERIOR: one storey high plus attic with a pitched roof, originally half-hipped at the east end. The front (north) elevation has a plat band and an early-mid C19 tripartite sash window with glazing bars. The porch has an early-C19 six-panelled door and a narrow sash window to the upper floor. The front wing, which obscured the eastern bay of the original house, has been almost entirely subsumed into the 1987 extension. There are large modern dormers to all rear roof slopes.

INTERIOR: the east and west rooms have deep-chamfered axial beams and stops with elongated steps and runouts, exposed joists (those to the west room chamfered, some with runout stops) and fireplace bressumers. A post is exposed in the north wall of the east room (now within the corridor). The rear south-west room has square framing to the north and west walls and exposed joists; the chamfered main beam has stops carved with a raised pyramidal moulding. A substantial brick fireplace has a bressumer and niche to left side, possibly a former bread oven. The truss of the eastern gable is partially visible in an attic bedroom; it is unclear how much of the roof structure survives.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

143499

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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