Lower Bearscombe Farmhouse

Details

DIPTFORD Lower Bearscombe SX75SW+SX75SE 8/218 & 9/218 Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Probably C16 or earlier, the lower end demolished, extended at higher end and remodelled in C17. Slate rubble with roughcast front and slate hung right hand south gable end. Large rendered stone rubble chimney stacks; the gable end stack to right was originally an axial stack and the axial stack to the left was originally a gable end stack; both heightened with brick shafts. Plan: 3-room and through passage plan originally, the lower end to the left-- has been demolished together with the cross or through passage. The hall, possibly originally open to the roof has a stack at its lower end backing onto the former passage and the relatively large former inner roof has a stack at the higher end. In the C17 the lower right end including the passage was demolished and a 1-room plan addition built at the higher right end containing the kitchen using the former inner room stack by inserting a fireplace with an oven on the kitchen side. The former inner room now the central room, was divided by an axial partition (since removed) forming a small unheated room at the back and an axial passage at the front linking the kitchen at the left end with the former hall at the right end and a doorway inserted at the front of the passage with 2-storey porch formed the new entrance to the C17 house. The newel stairs in a projecting turret at the front of the lower end of the hall may have been part of the C17 remodelling as the hall is likely to have been originally open to the roof. Exterior: storeys asymmetrical 3 window range with a rectangular stair turret at the right end of the front. Gabled 2-storey porch to left of centre, its first floor walls slightly corbelled out, a small first floor 2-light casement with a slate hoodmould a wide square-headed doorway, wooden benches inside and a blocked slit window on the right hand side; a C20 glazed plank inner door. Ground floor small C19 2-light casement to hall to right and a C19 3-light casement to the left, both with glazing bars and slate hood moulds. Above the left hand window a C20 gabled hall dormer. All the windows have slate sills. At the back various C19 and C20 12 and 3-light casement sin original small openings, a blocked doorway to left into former hall and a doorway to right now within a later outbuilding to the left at the rear a small single storey outshut with a slit window on the lower left side. Interior: Stone newel stairs in a turret at the front lower end of the hall. The fireplace at the lower end of the hall has dressed slate jambs but the lintel has been removed. The hall ceiling is plastered. There is a short section of plank and muntin screen between the hall and former inner room; it is exposed on the inner room side only where the muntins are roughly chamfered. The central room (former inner room) has thin roughly chamfered joists with straight cut stops. The fireplace at the higher end of the former inner room is blocked but the chamfered timber lintel is exposed. The left hand room in the C17 addition has a roughly chamfered cross-beam and half-beam with run-out stops. The fireplace in this room makes use of the former inner room (central room) stack and has a blocked over brick the lintel has been replaced with a brick arch probably in C19. There is also in this room an early C19 cupboard with panelled doors. There is one probably C17 plank door on the first floor between the hall and inner room chambers. Roof: Access to the roof space is very restricted. The roof seem to have been mostly replaced in C20 with soft wood trusses but a rafter of the old roof remains and appears to be smoke-blackened. The roof structure over the 2-storey porch can be seen from the chamber over the porch; it has its original trusses the principals with straight feet have threaded or deeply trenched purlins.

Listing NGR: SX7499853890

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

101133

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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