Great Seaside Farmhouse

Details

SY 28 NW
8/10
22.2.55

BRANSCOMBE
Great Seaside Farmhouse

II


Farmhouse. Early-mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, refurbished in
the late C18 and renovated circa 1960. Local stone rubble including some dressed
Beerstone blocks; stone rubble stacks topped with C20 brick; thatch roof.
Plan and development: L-plan house. The main block is built down a gentle
hillslope and faces north-west. It has a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. Uphill
at the left (north-eastern) end is an unheated inner room (the present kitchen).
Next to it the former hall has a large projecting front lateral stack. The rear
doorway of the passage is blocked. To right of it is the original kitchen with a
projecting rear lateral stack, and between it and the unheated end room (probably a
dairy) is a service passage which includes the service stair. The front doorway of
this passage is now blocked. To rear of the inner room a 2-room plan parlour block
projects at right angles. The smaller first room is unheated and contains the C20
main stair. The second room has a gable-end stack.
Since the main block roof has been rebuilt it is not possible to determine the early
structural history of the house. Nevertheless it seems very likely that is began as
3-room-and-through-passage plan house and some reused smoke-blackened timbers
suggest that the hall at least was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth
fire. The hall stack was probably added in the mid C16. The hall was floored over
in the mid or late C16 and the parlour wing built about the same time. The kitchen
was refurbished in the early-mid C17. The dairy and service passage may be C17 but
could be C18. The house was extensively refurbished in the late C18 and, at the
same time, the main block roof was replaced.
House is 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular 6-window front. All, including those around the rest of the
house, are circa 1960 mullioned windows made of cast concrete and containing iron-
framed casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway has a C20 plain frame
and contemporary plank door. The main roof is hipped both ends and steps down over
the lower side of the passage.
Interior: on the lower side of the main passage there is the remains of an oak
plank-and-muntin screen. This may be an original freature but has been so much
altered it is difficult to prove. It seems to have contained 2 doorways, one of
which had an arched or shouldered head. The kitchen has a large C17 fireplace, its
oak lintel chamfered with scroll stops. The crossbeam here and the one in the dairy
are both plain and probably part of the late C18 refurbishment. The hall fireplace
lintel was probably replaced at the same time although it has its original (somewhat
battered) Beerstone ashlar moulded jambs. The ceiling beams here have deep chamfers
and there is one elongated step stop. None of the inner room ceiling carpentry
shows but here a remarkable C16 oak window has been reset inside the new window; a
large mullion and transom window with 2 upper crank-headed lights with moulded
surrounds above 4 lower lights with chamfered mullions. The outer frame is moulded
with a band of modillion-like blocks. The lower lights were probably taller.
Possibly it was once in the open hall. Most of the carpentry detail in the parlour
wing was plastered over in the late C18. The parlour itself is lined with early C18
fielded panels above dado level and there is a box cornice. However the
contemporary chimneypiece has been removed to reveal part of an ovolo-moulded half
beam and a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with Tudor arch lintel and moulded
surround. A smaller version is exposed in the chamber above. The occupant reports
a close-studded oak full height crosswall between the 2 parlour wing rooms. The
parlour roof truss is plastered over but is shape suggests a jointed cruck roof
truss. The main block roof was completely renewed in the late C18.
Great Seaside is an attractive farmhouse close to the beach.
Source: a documentary research archive by Su Jarwood from the C14-1965 in National
Trust archives.

Listing NGR: SY2073988360

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

88682

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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