Charmydown Farmhouse and gardener's cottage

Summary

A former 17th century farmhouse built of Bathstone on the possible site of an earlier building. It was improved and extended over the next two hundred years to present an elegant home of considerable dignity on its plateau overlooking Solsbury Hill near Bath. Some unsympathetic alterations carried out in the 20th century have been carefully repaired and updated, and much of its historic character has been restored in the 21st century.

Reasons for Designation

Charmydown Farmhouse and gardener’s cottage, Batheaston, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a pre-1700 vernacular farmhouse rebuilt and given an embellished architectural style in the C18 and C19, this is a noteworthy example of an evolved historic dwelling that sits within the landscape with considerable dignity;
* it is well-constructed in Bath stone and has notable historic features including C17 doorframes to the kitchen, stone fireplaces to most rooms and good joinery;
* the building retains a substantial proportion of pre-1850 fabric.

Group value:

* with the modest gardener’s cottage constructed of rubblestone and of pre-1850 date.

History

Charmy Down is a hilltop plateau with evidence of agricultural use extending back to Neolithic times. Charmydown Farm may date from the C16, under the ownership of the Blanchard and Fisher families of St Catherine’s Court. However, the core of the Charmydown Farmhouse is probably of C17 date. The current building does not clearly relate to the L-plan building shown as Nicholas’s Farm on Thorpe’s map of 1752, but this may reflect the limited accuracy of pre-C19 maps of the area. Mid-C18 illustrations by Thomas Robins (1716-1770) entitled ‘Charmy Down Farm near Bath’ show a farm with a large chapel window and lancets on a crest overlooking countryside, in the manner of an eyecatcher or hilltop folly. It may depict an earlier configuration of buildings on this site; the two lancet windows bear a resemblance to those in the east flank of Charmydown Farmhouse. Also, a window opening in a nearby barn resembles a door shown in the Robins drawings. However, the subject of the illustrations may have been another farm elsewhere on Charmy Down.

The sale of the farm to The Mineral Water Hospital in Bath in 1750, and its tenancy under Company Secretary, Benjamin Bathurst MP, likely prompted the rebuilding of the house along with other changes to the farmstead. In situ C17 features are most evident in the lower floors and roof of the central four-storey section of the main range. The house otherwise dates to rebuilding phases in the C18/ early C19 when lower height wings, a new garden front, a stair turret and a replacement rear service range were introduced. The changes were most likely complete by the time the Ordnance Survey Map of 1817 was published, when the building was identified as ‘Charmy Down House’.

The T-plan arrangement is shown on the 1840s tithe map when the farm, comprising of farmhouse (or barton), houses, offices and garden was spread across the boundary between the parishes of St Catherine and Batheaston. At the time, the site was owned by the "President and Governors of Bath General Hospital". Under subsequent tenancies and ownerships in the C19 and C20 further adaptations were made to the farmhouse and the other buildings associated with the farm. The farmhouse was restored in the early C21. The gardener’s cottage to the west of the house, probably of late C18 or early C19 date, has had some alterations in the C20.

Details

A house, formerly a C17 farmhouse rebuilt in the C18 and early C19, with C20 and later extensions and alterations. A detached gardener’s cottage is of C19 date or earlier.

MATERIALS: coursed Bathstone with freestone quoins, ashlar window surrounds, banding, coped raised verges, moulded eaves cornices, and oak roof structures covered in Welsh slate. The interior joinery is C19 and late C20 replacements. The windows are timber sashes and casements are of late C20 date. The basement and kitchen floors are laid with flagstones and other rooms have pine floorboards.

PLAN: an evolved plan on a steeply sloped site. The main range, at the southern and lower end of the site, is of two-storeys plus attic and basement built on a north-west/south-east orientation with later east and west wings, of slightly lower height. The wings were part of a reorientation of the building to present a principal transverse range facing southeast to the garden. A two-storey rear service wing forms a T-plan along the continuation of the earlier north-west/south-east building line at the higher end of the site. At the junction between the main range and the service wing on the west side is a stair turret and there are two modest single-storey additions to the rear elevations. Internally, the principal range has a rear axial passage with a winder stair at the north end, central stairs up to the service wing (kitchen) and an inserted staircase down to the basement/lower ground floor rooms facing the garden terrace.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation fronts the garden and is of 2:2:2 bays, brought forward slightly to the centre under a gabled attic. There is a continuous moulded string at floor level, a plat band to the first floor and an attic string course at flanking eaves level. The central two casements to the lower ground floor have delicate scored mouldings, stone mullions and slots for earlier panes. The six-pane casements to the left and right bays have rebated surrounds with fixings for shutters. To the right of centre is a Bathstone door with a chamfered and eared surround. To the left of centre, one window is sealed behind a C20 staircase to a garden door, formerly a six-over-sash matching those across the upper ground floor. There are six-pane windows to the first floor and a six-over-nine sash to the attic. The lower ground floor casements have metal bars.

The coped gables of the return flanks have ashlar end stacks with offsets. The left (west) return is slate hung to the first floor with a casement to the right. The right (east) return has stone lancet openings to the left-hand side on ground and first floors, each containing a 12-pane sash with interlaced Y-tracery. Below is an opening for coal and to the attic is a small timber casement. To the right ground floor is a stone mullion casement and a timber attic casement.

To the rear, the taller central gabled bay with ridge stack adjoins the lower height in-line service wing. To its left, the narrower, gabled stair turret has timber casements to three floors on its east flank. To the far left, at the bottom of a set of steps, a door has a string course above and six-over-six sash to the first floor. To the right of the rear elevation is a single storey outshot with a chamfered stone door. The west flank of the taller central bay has inserted timber casements to the upper floors. To the left, the west elevation of the service range has a varied fenestration of timber casements and sashes and to ground floor left is a stone casement with mullion and hoodmould. The gabled end has raised coped verges and an ashlar stack. There is a modern stone shed against the end wall. The east elevation is enclosed within a C20/21 ground floor outshot with two casements above. To the ground floor left is the principal entrance with a stop-chamfered timber doorcase, possibly C17 and re-set, and modern casements to the right under timber lintels.

INTERIOR: the main entrance opens directly into the kitchen which has a chamfered oak crossbeam, a second beam is concrete and boxed in, and a stone fireplace to the north end. The fireplace is in a rubblestone chimneybreast with a wide stone lintel with chamfering and to the left is a bread oven under a brick arch. The room above, accessed via the main staircase in the house, has an inserted hearth in the chimneybreast with a reused oak bressumer. The room is open to the oak roof trusses with paired purlins and lap-jointed collars, and some later strengthening.

The door from the kitchen has a chamfer-stopped doorcase with cambered head and plank door, probably of C17 date, and there are steps down to the rear corridor of the main range. The corridor has large slate slab fixed to the kitchen wall and standing on a stone cill. There are chamfered doorcases to the principal rooms, a door to a flight of stone steps to the basement, and a stone staircase to the first floor. The central room overlooking the garden has a four-compartment ceiling with moulded plaster beam casings including egg-and-dart designs, a moulded cornice, stone fireplace, and panelling. The dining room to the east wing has an unchamfered cross beam (matching those in other rooms) and a tall ashlar fireplace within a projecting stone chimneybreast. The opposite wall is the uncovered former external wall to the house with ‘1757’ scored upside down in one of the blocks, and to the left is an inserted cupboard with long iron hinges. Most first floor and attic rooms have stone fireplaces with C18/ C19 grates. Above the first floor, the staircase is of timber construction. The attic room to the central bay has a tall C17 oak roof with two collars and two purlins. Some principals have remnants of bark. The east attic has a late-C18/ early C19 roof with a lap-jointed collar. The west wing has no attic and the roof is of C20 construction. The basements have substantial oak crossbeams and in the corner of the central room is a large copper with stone walls and a grate. To its left is a stone kitchen fireplace.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the C18/19 gardener’s cottage is built of rubble stone with a stone tile roof and few, modest openings. There is a boarded loft partition at upper level to the north end and a machine-sawn roof structure across the building. The partly rebuilt east wall has an attached stone building, a former privy, at the north end. The roadside elevation has double-leaf timber garage doors.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

32413

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
King Geroge III’s Personal Coloured Views Collection: CHARMMY-DOWN FARM., accessed 31/01/2025 from http://george3.splrarebooks.com/collection/view/charmmy-down-farm
Victoria and Albert Museum Collection: Drawing of Charmy Down Farm, sited on the north prospect of Lansdown, by Thomas Robins., accessed 31/01/2025 from https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O57278/drawing-robins-t/
Bath & NE Somerset Historic Environment Record: 70342: Charmydown Farm (Nicholas's Farm), accessed 31/01/2025 from https://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/70342

Other
Ross, K, The Building History of Charmydown Farmhouse, Charmydown, Bath, McLaughlin Ross LLP, 2012
Clark, J, A desk top study of Charmy Down, North East Somerset for Bristol University MA Landscape Archaeology, 1997, HER source: 3668, digital copy available.

End of official list entry

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