Lower Southwood Cottage Lower Southwood Farmhouse

Details

SY 09 SW ROCKBEARE

3/103 Lower Southwood - Farmhouse and adjoining Lower Southwood Cottage - II

Farmhouse and adjoining cottage, originally all one house. Early C17, refurbished circa 1700 and the cottage incorporates part of a late C19 coach house. The older parts are plastered cob on rubble footings, much rebuilt or faced up with circa 1700 brick on rubble footings and some late C19 brick; brick or stone rubble stacks topped with C19 brick and with some late C19 chimney pots; thatch roof and Roman tiles to the late C19 section. U-shaped building. The south-facing main block has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan with a small unheated dairy instead of inner room at the left (western) end. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the dairy and there is a parlour with an end stack at the right(eastern) end. A kitchen block with projecting outer lateral stack is built at right angles behind the left end and the main stair is located in the angle between the kitchen and main block. Lower Southwood Cottage is found in the right end rear block. It has 2 rooms. The front room is early C17, contains a disused stairwell and is served by a rear axial stack and the rear room has been converted from a late C19 coach house, All 2 storeys. Regular but not symmetrical 7-window brick front. The brick is laid to Flemish bond and makes decorative use of burnt headers. At the bottom is a plinth of rounded bricks over exposed rubble footings. All the windows have low segmental arches over. Those second in from the left end are blind. The rest contain similar late C19 casements with glazing bars. The front passage doorway right of centre contains a late C19 4-panel door behind a contemporary porch with trellis sides and a tiled gable roof with shaped bargeboards. The roof is gable-ended to right and hipped to left. The east-facing outer face of the right-hand rear block has the blind gable end of the main block. This is built of circa 1700 brick which appears to continue into the rear block but most here has been rebuilt with C19 brick and contains a 2- window front of late C19 casements with glazing bars. Both rear blocks have hipped roofs. Interior. The basic structure appears to retain a good deal of early C17 work although much is hidden by later plaster. However, the screens either side are late C17 frames and partly exposed; the timbers are of slight scantling with straight braces and the lower side contains a contemporary 2-panel door. The hall, kitchen and front room of the cottage rear block all have early C17 soffit-chamfered end scroll-stopped crossbeams. The service end parlour was rebuilt circa 1700 and has a plain soffit-chamfered crossbeam and a brick fireplace with a curving pentan and oak lintel shaped to a segmental arch. The hall fireplace is blocked although the large size of its oak lintel is evident. The kitchen fireplace is large and built of stone but its lintel is covered over. The cottage fireplace is blocked. The present stair is probably C19 although the door to it from the hall is late C17 with 2 fielded panels. The disused stairwell in the cottage is early C17 and oak framed. The chamber over the front cottage room has the remains of a C17 plaster cornice with a simple reeded moulding. The 4-bay roof of the main block is original and unusual in that the front has simple stright principals whilst the rear has side- pegged jointed crucks. The collars here could not be examined but are probably pegged dovetail-shaped and lap-jointed like the collar examined on the side-pegged jointed cruck over the early C17 section of the cottage rear block. In the roofspace the top of early C17 framed crosswall between the front block and cottage can be examined. It is close-studded with the lathes set in holes to create a ladder backing for the cob infill. The roof over the kitchen is circa 1700 comprising 1-frame trusses of relatively slender scantling with pegged lap-jointed collars. Lower Southwood is an interesting and attractive farmhouse.

Listing NGR: SY0219793421

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

352425

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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