Osmonds Farmhouse

Details

CLYST HYDON ST 00 SW 2/33 Osmonds Farmhouse II

Farmhouse. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, renovated circa 1980. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; asbestos tile roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: 3-room plan house facing north and built down the hillslope. Uphill at the right (west) end is the kitchen. The dining room in the centre has a front projecting lateral stack. There is a parlour at the left end with the C20 stair in front of it rising from the lobby behind the front door. This layout is the result of the circa 1980 modernisation. Formerly it had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house with the inner room at the right (west) end. The passage back doorway has been blocked and the passage lower side screen removed. The original early C16 house was probably smaller since the earliest roof is confined to the passage and service end, only overlapping the present hall a small distance. It was then open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. The house was enlarged to a 3-room-and-through-passage plan in the late C16-early C17. It is not clear whether this was done in more than one phase. The hall was floored in the early C17. House is 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 3-window front of circa 1980 casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is left of centre and it contains a C20 plank door behind a contemporary porch. The roof is gable-ended. Similar circa 1980 casements to rear and contemporary conservatory to rear of the hall. Interior is largely the result of the C20 modernisation but late C16-early C17 carpentry features are exposed in the hall. There are oak plank-and-muntin screens each end of the hall; they maybe contemporary. The rotted lower part of the upper hall screen has been replaced with concrete block. Also the shaped head of the doorway has been removed. The rear end bay of this screen was a second plain door lower side (presumably to a C16 stair). It was blocked in the C17; the cob infil has been removed leaving the backing lathes exposed as a ladder, each fitted into individual holes. The front of the screen retains traces of ancient colour, the remains of a late C17 painted strapwork design filled with bunches of flowers. The hall lower side screen contains a Tudor arch doorway. The hall crossbeam is chamfered but its pyramid stops were hacked off years ago. The fireplace is brick and has a chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel (the bricks must be replacements). The roof structure is mostly early. There is one original truss, a side-pegged jointed cruck. It and the purlins across the bays each side, are smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. There are 2 more jointed cruck trusses, or at least, one complete one over the hall and the remains of another at the upper end. These 2 are clean. Source: the owner has a folder of notes, drawings and photographs made during the renovation by Tom Coleman.

Listing NGR: ST0319201553

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

86793

Legacy System:

LBS

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