Slade Farmhouse

Details

SAMPFORD COURTENAY HONEYCHURCH SS 60 SW 5/168 Slade Farmhouse II* GV

Farmhouse. Circa aid C15 witn C17 and C19 alterations and additions. Rendered cob and rubble walls, part of front wall rebuilt in C20 in brick. Gable ended corrugated asbestos roof. Projecting front lateral stack of rubble with granite ashlar quoins and tapering cap with moulded dripcourse. Brick shaft at right gable end on stone base. Brick shaft to outshut at rear. Plan: originally 3-room and through passage plan, lower end to the left has since been demolished. The house almost certainly originated with an open hall which had a central hearth but this could only be proved by the existence of smoke-blackened roof timbers and there is at present no access to tile roof-space although it can be seen that early timbers survive. The lower end may also have been open to the roof but the inner room was almost certainly floored from tile start and reached from a newel stair rising at the back of the hall towards the higher end. There may have been an intermediate stage in tne C16 when the hall had a lateral fireplace inserted but remained open to the roof and possibly at this time the inner room was upgraded to a heated parlour. In the circa early C17 the hall was floored and a 2-storey porch added at the front of the passage. In the C19 a rear outshut was added destroying the stair projection behind the hall, the hall was reduced in size by the insertion of a partition across it just below the fireplace and a new staircase added adjoining this on the lower side. The date of the demolition of the lower end is uncertain. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front of mid-late C20 metal frame 3- light casements. Gabled 2-storey C17 porch at left-hand end has 2-light early C20 casement. Built in front of it is a leanto glazed porch. Outshut extends along rignt-hand end of rear wall. Interior: at front of passage is original granite 4-centre arched doorway, richly moulded. At the higher side of the passage part of a plank and muntin screen survives with chamfered muntins and high hollow step stops. Above the screen is a beam which has been shorn off but where it is complete at the front is richly moulded. Chamfered half beam to lower side of passage with ogee stops. Where the inserted stairs rise, visible on the first landing is a blocked original single light wooden window with trefoiled head. The hall has a large granite-framed fireplace with high lintel wnich is Hollow-chamfered as are the jambs. High up on the wall to the left of it is a moulded piece of stone possibly intended to hold a candle. At the rear of the hall, toward its higher end is tile original doorway to the stairs which has a very unusual wooden frame with 4-centred bead, its chamfer is decorated all the way around with high relief carved flower heads and 2 more obscure motifs which may be initials. C17 plank door. 2 heavy cross beams survive which are chamfered with notched stops. The inner room preserves half of a high quality framed ceiling of richly moulded spine and cornice beams. It also has a blocked granite framed fireplace. In the loft space above the rear outshut another original window has been re-used in the end wall though bow blocked - it is 2-lights with trefoil heads. This may have originated in the stair turret. Evidence of a probably medieval wall painting was uncovered on the higher end wall of the hall during recent renovation work - this may no longer survive on the ground floor but was very likely to have continued further up where it may well still survive beneath later plaster. Roof: there is no access to the roof space but on the first floor the closely spaced trusses can be seen to curve into the walls and they may extend down them considerably, so it is likely that there are medieval timbers. This is an important early house, obviously of considerable status and preserving some good features of which its decorated timber doorway is a particularly unusual ornate form. Other early features are probably still to be uncovered.

Listing NGR: SS6279002865

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

93051

Legacy System:

LBS

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.