Waterhouse Farmhouse

Details

HATHERLEIGH SS 50 SW 6/24 Waterhouse Farmhouse - - II Farmhouse. Circa 1500 with C16 and C17 alterations, C17 and C20 additions. Rendered cob walls. Gable ended thatch roof. Brick stack at left-hand end, rendered brick shaft at right-hand end and axial stone rubble stack with dripcourse and moulded cap. Plan: 3-room and through passage plan, original form of lower room to right is unclear as in its present form it was clearly of agricultural use before conversion but it may have been rebuilt. Hall and lower end open to the roof originally with central hearth to hall. A solid full-height wall separates the hall and inner room -there is no access to the roof over the. inner room so it is impossible to tell if it is an addition or was always a 2-storey range. This latter might be suggested by the evidence of an early staircase at the rear of the inner room but this could equally support the theory that the inner room was added as a 2-storey range while the hall was still open. In the circa mid C16 a chamber was built over the passage (and possibly the lower end) jettied into the still open hall. The hall was finally floored and its stack inserted backing onto the passage in the late C16 or early C17. Possibly at this time or slightly later a wing was added behind the hall. Its purpose is unclear as it is unheated and until recently was used as an outbuilding. In the C20 the lower end was considerably altered and converted from an outbuilding. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5-window front of late C20 1, 2 and 3-light casements. C20 part-glazed door to former passage at right of centre. C20 leanto against left-hand end. Rear wing projects to right of centre. Interior: hall has fireplace with roughly chamfered wooden lintel and granite jamb to left. Oven in right-hand side. Central axial beam is roll moulded but the half beams at front and rear are only chamfered. Ceiling level changes in line parallel with hall stack marking position of internal jetty. Inner room has smaller fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and rough granite jambs. On the rear wall is a blocked doorway to former newel stairs (now gone) with chamfered wooden door frame which has arched head, now partly rebuilt. Roof: one original true cruck survives over the hall which is chamfered and neatly stopped half-way down. It has a morticed cranked collar, threaded purlins and morticed apex with diagonal ridge. Completely smoke-blackened including common rafters and underside of thatch. The purlins continue - smoke-blackened - beyond the inserted stack over the passage and lower end, although the thatch has been replaced. Parallel to the stack is the remains of a timber partition which is blackened on the hall side and rises above the internal jetty in the hall. Over the rear wing one original truss also survives consisting of substantial, apparently straight, principals with a very high morticed collar and a later collar which has been lapped across the principals below it. This is visible from the first floor and there is no loft access above. The particular interest of this house lies in the survival of features from each of its main phases which clearly demonstrate the process of the modernisation of a medieval house that can often only be inferred or deduced.

Listing NGR: SS5460601278

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

93131

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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