(South) Gortleigh Farmhouse

Details

SHEEPWASH SS 40 NE 7/84 (South) Gortleigh Farmhouse - 21.2.77 - II Farmhouse. Early C16 with C17 alterations and C19 additions. Rendered and plastered cob walls and rubble walls. Thatch roof gabled to left and hipped to right end. 1 brick axial stack, 1 to left gable-end and 1 at end of rear wing. Plan: original plan not entirely clear - it seems to follow the 3-room-and-through- passage pattern but the proportions of the rooms do not seem to fit this pattern. At the right-hand end where one would expect to find the lower end there is a barn or shippon which has a solid wall dividing it from the house part and a late C17 or C18 roof structure. The house part consists of 3 rooms - a large central one - obviously the hall - heated by an axial stack at its right end and a small room to either side both heated but the right-hand one shares the hall stack and obviously has an inserted fireplace. This suggests a passage, hall and inner room but the right-hand rooms seems too wide to have been a passage - whereas the inner room seems unusually narrow. Probably the most likely answer is that since the house originated as an open hall house with central hearth and possibly low partitions its plan was considerably modified in the early C17 by the insertion of floors and chimney stacks and quite possibly the lower end was entirely rebuilt. The inner room may be a C17 addition although this still does not explain its narrow proportions. In the C19 a dairy/service wing was added at the rear of the left-hand end with an outshut adjoining. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front of circa late C19 or early C20 2- light small-paned casements. Lower barn to right has a wide central doorway with a C19 slatted window to either side. The doorway to the house is through a converted outbuilding projecting from its left end with a C20 plank and part-glazed door. The rear elevation has C19 gabled wing to right with outshut adjoining to its left. The rear barn wall preserves an original 1st floor loading hatch with wooden frame. Interior: hall has good C17 fireplace with roll moulded wooden lintel. The left- hand room has evidence of a fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and has an axial chamfered ceiling beam supported on a curved wooden corbel. On the 1st floor above the hall in the rear wall is a 2-light square section wooden mullion window. Over the hall the original smoke-blackened roof structure survives consisting of 2 pairs of sharply elbowed crucks (it is not known how far down they extend) with threaded purlins and diagonal ridge. The original rafters and thatch are also preserved. The hall stack has been inserted into 1 of the trusses. The barn has a late C17 or C18 roof structure consisting of straight principals with lapped and pegged collars.

Listing NGR: SS4665806415

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

91059

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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