Westlake Farmhouse

Details

DOLTON SS 51 SE 5/58 Westlake Farmhouse II Farmhouse. Circa 1500 with C16 alterations and late C16 or early C17 addition and alterations; C19 addition. Plastered cob and rubble walls. Slate roof gabled to right and rear wing, hipped to left. Slightly projecting plastered rubble lateral stack at front. Rubble stack to gable-end of rear wing. Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan with lower end to the right. Originally open to the roof from end to end with central hearth to hall. The lower end was floored probably not long after the house was built, with its chamber projecting slightly into the open hall. The wing to the rear of the inner room cannot be dated precisely without an inspection of its roof timbers but is unlikely to be later than early C17 and being heated by a gable-end stack functioned either as a kitchen or a parlour. The hall itself is unlikely to have been ceiled until the mid C17 and had a straight flight staircase added in a projection to its rear. At the front of the hall a lateral stack was added. It is unclear when the passage along the rear of the hall was inserted as its headbeam is a C17 timber which runs in the opposite direction to the hall ceiling beams. C19 outshut added behind stair projection. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window front of C20 1 and 2-light small-paned casements apart from ground floor right-hand window which is single-paned. C19 plank door to right of centre. Slightly projecting ground floor window to left of lateral stack. Wing projecting to rear of left-hand end. The rear elevation has an outshut to the right of centre built in front of the rectangular stair projection which has chamfered wooden light in left-hand end. To the left on the 1st floor is a Cl6 unglazed 2-light wooden mullion window with diamond section mullion which has had a C20 pane inserted in front of it. Interior: 2 heavy oak square-headed pegged doorframes which may be original survive in the partitions between the passage and lower room and the hall and inner room. The hall has an open fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel. Above the lintel is a small royal cost of arms in plaster relief of uncertain date. High scratch moulded axial beams to hall. The roll-moulded headbeam to the partition of the rear of the hall is lower than the main beams. Above the partition between the passage and the hall is a moulded beam with pyramid stops. Projecting into the hall over this partition are fairly rough jetty joists with curved ends. 1st floor fireplace in rear wing has chamfered wooden lintel. Roof: over the main range the roof is smoke-blackened with cruck form trusses the feet of which are not fully visible. Morticed collars, threaded purlins and diagonal ridge. There is evidence of a partition in the roof over the jetty into the hall, and the roof over the lower end is considerably less smoke-blackened. The roof-space over the rear wing was not accessible but it also has cruck-form trusses with threaded purlins and probably morticed collars. This is an interesting building whose complex development and wealth of internal features are belied by a fairly plain exterior.

Listing NGR: SS5596211152

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

90851

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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