Details
SY 7283 OSMINGTON CHURCH LANE
(east side)
12/17
Charity Farmhouse and
1.11.85 attached Forge
II*
GV
Farmhouse, of longhouse form, with byre still in use. Late C16, with
C17 extension to north. C19 and C20 refenestration and renewed stacks.
Random rubblestone walls and dressed stone quoins. Corrugated iron
roof over thatch, hipped at left hand and gabled at right hand. C20
brick stack at ridge right centre, and C20 brick stack on north end
wall. Two storeys. 3 windows to house and 2 openings to byre.
Ground floor of house has C19 and C20 wood casements of 3 : 2 : 3
lights with glazing-bars to right window. Upper floor has wood casements
of 4 : 3 lights with glazing-bars to light window. Entrances:
former common entry, right of centre, plank with wood frame and
wood lintel, C20. Left at centre, into C17 extension, plank door with
wood frame and weatherboard, C19. Present entrance to byre, right of
common entry, without door. Blocking to right of this. Interior:
plan, from south end, byre, common entry passage with wall blocking original
access to byre, originally the passage and byre were separated by a timber
partition. Heated room with open fireplace embrasure backing on to
entry passage. Site of stair on rear wall, in projecting embrasure,
access to heated room between stair and fireplace jamb now blocked.
Inner room to north west, a C17 addition, or rebuilding. Roof:
raised cruck trusses with collars, pegged yokes, 2 sets of through-purlins
and ridge, in the byre and house. House has hollow and protruding
straight-chamfered ceiling-beams. Internal arrangement of rooms
altered by change of stair position to rear wall at junction of
heated room and parlour and by alteration of access from outside to a
position between the two rooms. Attached forge, at right angles to
north east, former barn, C18. Coursed rubblestone walls and
plinth-moulding. Hipped Roman-tile roof. 2 leaf plank doors at centre.
Charity farm was purchased in 1665 by the Corporation of Weymouth and
Melcombe Regis, with a bequest from Sir Samuel Mico, who intended the
rent to be devoted to an annual sermon and to the relief of the poor.
(R.C.H.M. Dorset II, p. 181 (14). J Hutchins, History and Antiquities
of the County of Dorset, II, p. 508. E Mercer, English Venacular
Houses, HMSO, 1975, plate 31).
Listing NGR: SY7239683274
