Higher Braundsworthy Farmhouse

Details

BLACK TORRINGTON SS 40 NW

6/9 Higher Braundsworthy Farmhouse -

- II*

Farmhouse. Circa 1500 probably with circa early Cl7 additions and C19 extensions. Plastered rubble and cob walls. Gable-ended slate and concrete tile roofs. 3- rendered stacks - the 2 gable-end ones brick and a large rendered axial stack offset from the ridge. Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan with the rear passage doorway blocked. Hall stack backs onto the passage, large inner room heated by gable end fireplace. Lower room probably has stack inserted in C18 or C19 with a further room beyond it. Originally the house is likely to have had a 2-room and passage plan with an open hall to the left heated by a central hearth and a solid wall dividing it from the lower room which may have been 2-storey from the start. The inner room at the left end appears to be a circa early C17 addition as a sizeable parlour and the small wing behind it probably contained a stair turret originally and is more likely to be mid C17 dating perhaps from the time when the hall was floored over and its stack inserted. The room beyond the lower room formerly functioned as an outbuilding and was only recently converted. Adjoining the small rear stair wing is a C20 small wing. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front. Early C19 16-pane sash on 1st floor to left of centre with 2 mid C20 casements to its right of 2 and 3-lights. Below a C20 French window to the left with small-paned light adjoining to its right and a 3-light mid C20 casement beyond. To the right is a late C20 tall 3-light leaded pane casement. C19 plank door to right of centre with chamfered wooden arch surviving above. Lower addition at right-hand end, formerly outbuilding and long late circa early C19 barn projecting in wing from it. Interior: is of considerable interest and belies the rather plain exterior. The inner room has fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and unchamfered granite jambs. 3 ceiling beams chamfered with hollow step-stops. The thick wall dividing it from the hall is wainscotted with C17 panelling. Hall is relatively small and has ovolo- moulded ceiling beams with plain joists. Heavy wooden lintel to blocked fireplace. C18 wail cupboard with fielded 2-panel doors. A C17 ovolo-moulded doorframe leads from the passage to the hall and a similarly-moulded lintel survives over the former back doorway. The door frame to the lower room has chamfered and stepped jambs and lintel. On the 1st floor is another C17 chamfered doorframe. In the rear wing is a late C17 2-panel door fielded with bolection moulding around the edges. One of the main 1st floor rooms has had a large C13 cupboard partly built into 1 wall. Roof: the original trusses survive over the main range. At the lower end is a raised cruck with morticed cranked collar, threaded purlins, diagonal ridge with triangular strengthening block below. The truss is lightly smoke-blackened. A solid wall divides this section from the hall which is smoke-blackened on the hall side. The hall has 2 trusses of very large scantling and heavily smoke-blackened. The lower side are which has been cut off by the hall stack is a raised cruck the central one is a face-pegged jointed cruck. Similar construction to the lower end truss but the ridge has been removed. A few original rafters survive. The wall at the higher end is smoke-blackened on the hall side, clean on the other. Over the inner room is a cruck with sharply angled elbow, of lighter scantling than over the nall and not smoke-blackened. This is an interesting late medieval house which gives fairly clear evidence of its original plan and pattern of development and preserves good quality features from several periods little altered internally by C20 modernisation.

Listing NGR: SS4387805856

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

91562

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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