Summary
Late-C15 three-bay hall house, subsequently floored and a stack inserted in the C17; there are also C19 and C20 alterations.
The building was heavily restored and extended in the late 1980s; the extension is not of special interest and does not form part of the listed building.
Reasons for Designation
Home Farm, Chobham, a late-C15 three-bay hall house with multiple subsequent phases of alteration, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reason:
* Architectural and historic interest: the building’s origins as a late C15 hall house are legible in its fabric, as are subsequent phases of its evolution, demonstrating the development of vernacular building traditions and modes of domestic occupation.
History
Home Farm was originally a three bay hall house, of probable late C15 date, with a single-bay open hall to the centre; the bays to either end being floored. A large brick chimney stack was inserted into the south end of the open hall, probably in the mid to late C17. The stack has two flues, one with a large square cooking hearth to the north, and one with a splayed parlour hearth to the south. At this time the hall would have been floored-over, and most likely at this time the partition between the hall and the room to the north would have been moved further north to create a large central hearth room and a smaller unheated room. A stair inserted next to the chimney has since been removed.
Various alterations took place after the reconfiguration of the building from an open hall plan to a fully-floored, chimneyed, plan, including the brick under-building of the frame at ground-floor and the creation of a central entrance porch. The next major phase of restoration and remodelling took place in the 1980s, after the building was first listed. This work included the replacement of the first-floor framing to the west and south, the sand-blasting of the brickwork of the central stack and exposed timbers on the ground floor, and the substantial extension of the building to the east.
Details
Late C15 three-bay hall house, subsequently floored. C19 and C20 alterations; heavily restored and extended in the 1980s.
MATERIALS: timber-framed with painted brick in-fill and ground floor under-building. The roof is tiled and windows and doors are timber.
PLAN: the building runs broadly north/south, with the front elevation to the west. It remains essentially as a three-bay house, but with a substantial stack in the central bay, and the remainder of the central bay opened up internally to the whole of the north bay. The roof is hipped.
Extension of the house in the 1980s created an east/west range adjoining the south bay of the original house to the rear. This extension does not form part of the listed building
EXTERIOR: the building had its front elevation to the west. At ground floor this, and the whole of the north elevation, is of painted brick laid in Flemish bond – a likely C19 alteration, which saw the under-building of the timber frame. Windows are paired timber casements. At first floor to the west, and the whole of the south elevation, is a late-C20 replacement of the original timber frame. The newness of this frame is evident in its character, although it is traditionally pegged and replicates the framing pattern of the original, including the replication of a blocked mullioned window on the first floor (a feature noted in the original List entry before the framing was renewed) and the jowling of the corner posts to the south. An open-fronted porch has been added to the front, possibly c1900, which surrounds a two-panelled double-door, with early-C19 reeded architrave. There is a large, off-centre, brick ridge stack.
The original first-floor frame survives to a large degree on the east elevation, although it is partially screened by the 1980s extension.
INTERIOR: the timber floor structure of the two northernmost bays is exposed in the ground floor ceiling. This is now one single room, but the differing construction pattern across the ceiling is indicative of the floored hall and the reorganisation of the bays internally to create a larger and smaller room when the chimney was inserted. The two large hearths are fully open, with the brickwork of the stack and timber bressumers exposed.
On the first and attic floors a number of original structural timbers are exposed, or partially exposed, within the rooms, including wall plates, posts and tie-beams. At attic level the central bay is mainly occupied by a bedroom, but the bays to either side are accessible as roof spaces, where the structure of the clasped purlin roof is visible. Within the roof space of the north bay the inside face of the bay partition is plastered with a course, fibrous daub, and from within the roof space of the south bay smoke-blackened timbers are visible adjacent to the brick stack (within what was the central open hall bay).
Interior joinery and wall finishes are generally of C20 date.
