Highstead Farmhouse

Details

BRADFORD SS 40 NW

6/26 Highstead Farmhouse

14.2.58 - II*

House formely farmhouse. Circa 1500 or sligntly earlier with probably later C16 and C17 alterations further C19 modifications and addition. Cob walls re-faced with rubble at the front and side. Gable-ended thatch roof. 3 brick stacks - one at each gable-end and one axial, lateral stack to rear outshut. Plan: at present 3 main rooms with entrance into stair lobby and a passage to its left but complex development of plan and tne lack of access to the roof space over the hall and left-band and causes a few problems if interpretation. he original position of the passage is not entirely certain but is most likely to have been between the central and right-hand rooms now occupied by has a C19 or early C20 straight run staircase. This may hot in fact be the original position of tne passage since the building began as an open hall house with a central hearth. Unfortunately, due to tne inaccessibility of the roof spaces over the hall and left- nand end of the house, evidence for the original divisions of the house - tneir position and form is not available. A full neight partition divides the roof-space over the nall from that at the right-hand end but it does not appear to be original and it seems very likely that the hall roof is also stroke-blackene.d. The left-hand rotative higher end is more problemnatic because there is no access to its roof- space and an early doorway survives on its 1st floor. This opens onto a room over the hall which has a different floor level - suggesting that the hall was floored over at a different tine to the inner room and tne early 1st floor doorway was perhaps reached by ladder access from the nall for an original or 2nd phase chamber over the inner room. Certainly there is a solid wall dividing it from the hall. The ceiling over the lower end too is at a different level to that of tne hall which indicates that the hall is likely to have been floored ove last of all - probably by early C17. Interestingly its stack was inserted at the putative higher end rather than backing onto the passage as is more customary in Devon. The position of the lower end stack is also interesting as it was inserted not at the usual gable-end out set-in to form a narrow room at the very end of the house. Possibly at the time that this stack was inserted a newel stair was added in a projection to its rear. The inner room has a fireplace at its gable-end which is likely to be a later insertion. Another unusual feature is the presence of a stack at tne lower side of the putative passage which at present has no fireplace but may have been constructed to serve one on the 1st floor. Further alterations were made probably in the C19 when the stairs were inserted and a passage made benind the hall leading to the rear part of the inner roonlwtticn had been subdivided. The passage also served a kitchen added in a lean-to at the rear of the hall. Probably at this stage the house was refronted in stone rubble. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5-window front of which the left-hand half projects sligntly with circa early C20 2- and 3-lignt casements. The right-hand side has 2 single light C20 casements to the right and a 3-light C20 casement to the left on tile ground floor. Above it is an early C13 16-pane sash witn a later C19 12-pane sash to its left. At the left end of the recessed section is a gabled porch with a C19 glazed and panelled door behind it. The rear elevation has a reztang.jiar stair projection towards the left-hand end witn large C19 outshut to its right. Good interior: room to right of entrance has fireplace with chamfered and step- stopped wooden lintel and chamfered ceiling beam. The small room beyond it nas a fireplace using the same stack with a narrow chamfered wooden lintel. The newel stairs have been removed from their projection. The hall has a chamferen ceiling beam with indistinct stops. Its fireplace is blocked but a chamfered wooden lintel is visible. To the front of the stack is a massive wooden post apparently supporting a cracked ceiling beam. To the rear of the hall stank - now in the separate passageway - is what may be an original wooden doorframe - 4-centred with a small peak in the head forming a kind of ogee. On the 1st floor is a contemporary or earlier C16 roundheaded chamfered door frame. The room over the lower end has the vesrtiges of a C17 partition at one end. Roof: over the hall a cruck truss is visible on the 1st floor but without access to the roof space here or over the higher end of the house evidence of smoke-blackening is not available - it is highly likely to survive over the hall, however. Over the lower end 2 original trusses survive with a complete smoke-blackened roof including battens and thatch. The ridge is diagonal, the purlins trenched and the collar halved with notched lap joint to the surviving complete truss. The other truss has had the stack inserted into it. This is one of the few medieval houses surviving in this area and also one of the most complex which contains some very interesting internal features as well as an attractive facade.

Listing NGR: SS4197605263

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

91580

Legacy System:

LBS

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