Park Farmhouse

Summary

An early-C19 parish workhouse converted to a farmhouse in the mid-C19, and with an earlier rear wing.

Reasons for Designation

Park Farmhouse is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: a good survival of an early-C19 parish workhouse that incorporated an earlier building, probably a farmhouse. The conversion back to a farmhouse in the mid-C19 marks the practical reuse of rural buildings, in this case due to historic changes of the needs of the community;
* Architectural interest: the façade is a well-realised design, and complemented by a good surviving set of formal rooms with historic fittings to the front of the house;
* Intactness: this building survives relatively intact for a building of this date and type;
* Group value: with the nearby granary, which is separately listed at Grade II.

History

The building is principally of early-C19 date, with an earlier rear wing, and was probably originally a farmhouse associated with the C18 granary nearby. It is shown on a c.1840 map of East Knoyle and Hindon. It served as East Knoyle Parish Workhouse from 1811 until the late 1830s, when it was closed and the occupants were transferred to Mere Union Workhouse. The front range was probably the governor’s accommodation and the rear housed the inmates. In the mid-C19, the building was converted back into a farmhouse, and further farm buildings were built or rebuilt around it. The farm, along with nearby Knowle Down farm, was sold as part of the Clouds estate in 1877. It is marked on the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1887 as Park Farm. In 1936, Park Farm was sold to John Granville Morrison (created Baron Margadale in 1964) of Fonthill House, and sold back to the Clouds Estate trustees in 1971. Some alterations have been carried out in the later C20, and in 2014 the building is vacant.

Details

An early-C19 parish workhouse, with an earlier rear wing, and adapted into a farmhouse in the mid-C19.

MATERIALS: dressed limestone, with a clay tile roof and brick stacks. The interior joinery is timber, and there some of the ground floor rooms have flag stone floors.

PLAN: the building is two-storey plus attic, constructed on an L-plan.

EXTERIOR: the main elevation is of three bays with a central six-panelled door with transom light and a wooden hood on consoles. The windows either side have sixteen-pane sashes. The first floor windows have four-pane wide 12-pane sashes either side of a central 9-pane sash. All the windows have moulded flush architraves. There are two gabled attic dormers in the lower pitch of the mansard roof, with pivot-hung windows. The left return has two-light casements to the ground and
first floors. The right return has a four-panelled door and a window with a sixteen-pane sash. There are two-light and three-light casements to both floors of the east elevation of the rear wing. The west side of the wing has an outshut with two-light casements, two flat-headed dormers with leaded casements, and a planked door to the north gable end inside a modern projecting porch. There is a shallow outshut to the rear (north) of the front range. There are a tall end stack and a ridge stack in the roof of the front range, and there is a further stack on the rear wing roof.

INTERIOR: the central hallway has an early-C19 stair with a wreathed handrail and stick balusters. The joinery throughout the front range, including four-panelled doors, architraves, skirting and rebated shutters, is moulded. The ceilings have moulded cornices and large section chamfered beams. The two principal rooms have fireplaces, on of which is of C19 date. One of the first floor bedrooms has a C19 fireplace. The doors and windows have C19 furniture. The joinery in the rear wing is plain, with braced plank doors and strap hinges. The attic floor doors are plain plank. There is a C19 stair in the rear wing.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a covered cellar below the farmyard may have been used to store cider apples.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

321126

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
A History of tyhe County of Wiltshire: Vol. 11, accessed from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=115485
East Knoyle - The OPC is Jan Oliver, accessed from http://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/genealogy/index.php/parish-directory/item/259-east-knoyle
Mere, Wiltshire, accessed from http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Mere/

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry