Holwell Farmhouse

Details

SOUTH MILTON SX 64 SE 4/109 Holwell Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Circa early C17 extended and probably remodelled in early C18, modernised in earlier C20. Slatestone rubble walls. Slate roof gabled to left end and hipped to right. Brick stack at left and right-hand ends and at end of left-hand rear wing. Plan: originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan but the lower end was truncated probably earlier this century and the passage became a leanto. Hall stack backs onto passage and in front is a hall bay; inner room stack may be an insertion. In the early C18 a wing was added behind the hall consisting of a staircase with parlour adjoining it on ground floor and good quality chamber above. At the higher end is another rear wing also probably of the C18 built as a dairy. The rear of the hall was partitioned into a passage either when the stairwing was added or subsequently. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front, 3 windows below with projecting hall bay at centre. To right on each floor is a mid - later C20 casement without glazing bars. The 2-storey hall bay has a hipped roof with early C20 4-pane sash on 1st floor and early C19 16-pane hornless sash below which has a stone hoodmould over. To the left the front wall continues in the same line as the bay up to 1st floor level with a catslide roof extending down to it and it has a similar 16-pane sash with dripcourse above. Projecting slightly forward to the left is the porch with former passage in a leanto behind it. The porch has a square rubble doorway at the front with chamfered sides. The original studded plank door is behind it in an ovolo-moulded wooden doorframe. Small C20 brick leanto built against right-hand end of house with plank door on inner face. At the rear of the house are 2 parallel gabled rear wings. Interior: has surprisingly good quality features of the early C18. In the rear wing is an open-well C18 staircase which has an open string, turned balusters, square panelled newels, a ramped handrail and dado panelling. Above these stairs is a contemporary moulded rib plaster ceiling of simple design. Adjoining the stairs in the wing on the ground floor is a room with complete C18 fielded panelling incorporating a china cupboard with roundarched head and pilasters. The room above this also has similar complete panelling with a bolection moulded chimneypiece and coved plaster ceiling. The room over the hall has an C18 moulded plaster cornice. The back stairs at the higher end of the house are probably of a similar date and have splat balusters. The dairy wing has rough unstopped ceiling beams. Only the roof over this range is visible and it has C18 or early C19 A- frames with lapped and pegged collars. This is a particularly interesting farmhouse because, unlike others in the area, it did not undergo a major C18 rebuild or refronting, but simply a rear extension and good quality internal refitting, with the C17 front largely unaltered. It was evidently once a larger and more important house and has suffered somewhat of a decline, but the quality of its internal fittings belies its modest external appearance.

Listing NGR: SX6939841479

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

100806

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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