Details
330/8/73
02-JAN-85
THWING
OCTON
THE OLD FARMHOUSE, GLEBE FARM
(Formerly listed as:OCTON COTTAGE AT GLEBE FARM)
II*
Longhouse, former yeoman's farmhouse, late C17.
MATERIALS
Oak cruck frames; chalk walling, outer cladding in slim, handmade brick mainly laid in stretcher bond; pantile roofs.
PLAN
Single storey longhouse of three cells with the byre end to the south. The cross passage wall to the byre has been removed, but the opposed entrances remain, with the byre latterly used as a kitchen. The stair, to the inserted attic floor, rises alongside the east wall of the central room (the housebody). The northern bay, beyond a timber partition, forms a parlour. The attic is divided into three rooms. At the foot of the stair there is a doorway to a single bay outshut, whose only other opening is an external door. Attached to the north end of the longhouse there is a single bay outbuilding (wash-house).
EXTERIOR
Front (west):
The west elevation of the house is entirely clad in brick with a straight joint with the chalk walled wash-house to the north. There is a jagged joint between the central and southern bays with a slight change in brickwork marking either a rebuild or a recladding. Elsewhere there are other smaller areas of recladding. The northern and central bays are lit by 6 pane horizontal sliding sashes with thin glazing bars, lacking proper sills or lintels, with the southern bay having a smaller, four pane window beneath a timber lintel. A small 2 by 2 sliding sash is tucked under the eaves to light the central attic room. The doorway, on the northern side of the southern bay, has a board door set in a simply architraved doorcase, but again lacks a proper lintel. To its left, in line with the stub of the central stack (that is just off the ridge) there is a blocked fire window.
South gable:
The lower part of the gable is clad in brick with the upper half being exposed chalk walling. The lower part of the brickwork is emphasised to form a rough, high plinth. The chalk walling utilises well dressed blocks to eaves level with more random chalk rubble above. The pantile roof slightly oversails the gable top. At the ridge there is a stub of a brick stack. There is a single opening, a narrow window lighting the attic with a C20 fixed light.
East:
Most of the east elevation of the house is exposed chalk walling, with the lower parts clad in brickwork and the northern bay partially rendered. The central bay is covered by the outshut with its catslide roof. The southern bay has a door and a window, both with segmentally arched heads formed from single courses of brick headers with the joinery probably being C20. The wash-house to the north has its only openings on the east elevation, this elevation being brick, complete with a brick corner stack with chimney pot.
North gable:
This is partly covered by the wash-house. The exposed gable is all clad in brick with tumbling-in brickwork to the raised gable top. There is a single, large window offset to the east lighting the attic with the remains of a 4 by 4 horizontal sliding sash.
INTERIOR
Crucks:
The longhouse retains two in situ base cruck frames complete with saddles and collars, the lower parts of the crucks being built into the chalk walling. The blades of the northern cruck are a matched pair split from a single timber. Its collar is halved onto the south side of the blades and secured by single pegs. Both blades are mortised into the saddle, each being secured by two pegs. This saddle supports a block which in turn supports a diamond set ridge beam. Purlins, (which are later replacements) are trenched into the backs of the blades. The southern crucks are an unmatched pair, the east blade being relatively straight, but elbowed just below the collar and with a replacement timber spliced into its base. The west blade is possibly double curved, but is largely obscured by plaster. Again the collar is halved into the blades which are in turn morticed into the saddle, with each joint secured by two pegs. Dendrochronology analysis of the blades and collars show that both trusses include timber from a single tree felled in the winter of 1670.
Housebody:
The central bay or housebody is separated from the southern bay by a chalk wall incorporating the chimney, and from a former parlour to the north by a plank and muntin partition, with similar panelling dividing off the staircase that rises alongside the east wall. The area beneath the stairs has been interpreted as the remains of a box bed. Set just to the south, and probably predating the partition, there is a beam that has an ogee and stepped moulding on the south side and a hollow chamfer on the north side. Nearly all of the other joists supporting the inserted attic floor are sawn soft wood, some with C19 roll mouldings, some being simply chamfered. Floor boards are also pine, with those of the southern bay being broad. The housebody has a C19 cast iron fireplace served by an inserted brick stack in the place of the earlier hearth, screened from the doorway to the byre end by a plank partition. There is a plank door at the foot of the stairs hung on C18 strap hinges and a similar door to the parlour hung on butterfly hinges.
Parlour:
This retains a simple, Regency period timber chimney piece, although the fire surround has been lost.
Kitchen:
This is served by an inserted brick stack on the south gable wall. The chalk wall to the north includes a brick lined alcove or former cupboard.
Attic:
Both of the cruck frames include remains of stud, lath and plaster partitions dividing the attic into three rooms. The southern partition retains remains of the former wattle and daub smoke hood.
HISTORY
The Old Farmhouse at Octon, a hamlet in the historic parish of Thwing, is dated to shortly after winter 1670, the felling date of the timber in the cruck trusses. Originally, the building probably had walls constructed of wattle and daub or other similarly insubstantial material, with the chalk walling being an early alteration. Thwing parish baptismal records of 1692 and 1696 suggest that the house was then owned and lived in by a yeoman, John Roper. John Roper mortgaged the farm in 1720 and then sold it in 1723 for £350 to the Vicar of Folkton as glebe land, giving the farm its current name. At this time it included the house with three adjoining closes together with 10 oxgangs of land within Octon's open fields (an oxgang originally being an area of land that could be cultivated with a single ox). Octon's open fields were enclosed by Parliamentary Act in 1769, with the vicar of Folkton being awarded enclosed land on either side of the farm house totalling just under 100 acres. This consolidation of land may date the encasement of the house with brickwork, although this may have been one of a number of minor improvements that appears to have been made to the house earlier in the C18. In 1856, the glebe land of Folkton was transferred to the vicarage of Burton Fleming. The farm was sold by the church to the Burdass family in 1921 who moved into a new farmhouse just to the north in 1939, turning the Old Farmhouse over to storage.
SOURCES
Vernacular Architecture Group,"Tree-ring date lists 2008" in Vernacular Architecture Vol 39 (2008, p131
Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group,"Glebe Farm" (Unpublished building record, number 1727; 2005)
Pevsner, N and Neave D,"Buildings of England. Yorkshire: York and the East Riding", (2005), p725
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Old Farmhouse at Glebe Farm is designated at grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Crucks: Dendrochronology analysis has demonstrated that the building retains two complete cruck trusses constructed from timber felled in 1670, this degree of survival being of more than special interest.
* Lack of enlargement: The building is an exceptionally rare example of a pre-enclosure longhouse that has not been enlarged by raising the roof or by the addition of significant extensions.
* Survival of early features: Including the plank and muntin partition, moulded beam, together with the remains of a smoke hood and possible understairs box bed.
* Vernacular construction: In addition to the crucks, the evolution of the walling (early replacement with chalk which is then encased by brick in the C18) is a rarely surviving and very good example of local vernacular building techniques.
