Poplars Farmhouse

Reasons for Designation

* The development of the building from a three-bay farmhouse of the mid-C17 to a seven-bay structure by c1720 is clear from surviving historic fabric, with internal features that testify to a rise in social standing of the owner * There is a significant survival of fabric from before 1700 and from before 1840, meeting the set criteria. * The surviving early C18 windows, door hood, panelling and the late C17 full-height staircase are of high quality and rarity * The standard C17 and C18 linear arrangement of rooms is apparent, as is the insertion of rear passageways in response to the desire for more privacy from the later C18.

Details

WYMINGTON

1869/0/10019 Poplars Farmhouse 16-DEC-09

II Lobby-entrance farmhouse of the mid-C17, enlarged to the west in the late C17 and again in c1720.

MATERIALS The house is constructed of coursed oolitic limestone blocks, the rear (north) elevation and the east return rendered and colourwashed; gabled slate roof.

PLAN Formerly lobby-entrance, but converted in the late C17 and early C18 to a rear-passage plan with the main ground and first-floor rooms in line.

EXTERIOR The main south elevation facing the High Street is of seven window bays in two storeys with a vertical butt join between bays four and five immediately east of the ground-floor seven-light bow window, which was added in 1961. To the east of this point is the original three-bay mid-C17 lobby-entrance house with the entrance formerly in the position of the taller central window. In the later C17 the house was enlarged by two bays to the west of the butt join and in c1720 enlarged again in the same direction by a further two bays and the entrance relocated to bay three. The fenestration is of early C18 timber two-light cross casements in bays one to four and of three-light cross casements in the eastern three bays, under sandstone lintels. Four casements were replaced in replica in 1947. Six-panelled late C19 door, the upper four panels with leaded glazing, set under a good early C18 flat hood with acanthus and dentil decoration. Cast-iron rainwater goods of the late C19, when the house was re-roofed and given a corbelled eaves cornice. Two ridge stacks and an internal west gable-end stack, all rebuilt in the late C19 in gault brick.

The north elevation after the alterations of the late C19 had a full-width veranda with the upper floor supported on brick piers. In 1975 the veranda was filled in and fitted with four uPVC casements and a multi-paned glazed door, and the upper floor provided with four two-light timber casements. The entrance to the enclosed space is via a doorway in the east return set within a recess with a semi-circular head. Each floor of the return is lit through a three-light 1975 casement. The west return is of uniform coursed limestone blocks without openings.

To the north-west an early C18 stone outbuilding formerly with double cart doors towards the south end, all converted to domestic use in 1975 and fitted with three-light timber casements, three of which have a slight bow. This is connected with the main house by a two-storey link, extensively reworked in 1975, and where this joins with the main house on the west side is a raking buttress of the same date built against the quoins of the late C17 extension. INTERIOR The rear passage created from the former veranda provides access to the principal rooms, off of which has been constructed a secondary staircase in the late C19 with moulded square balusters and newels, but the south entrance door opens directly into a small staircase hall with the outer west wall of the late C17 extension exposed to the left, with a blocked window opening. One room lies to the west of this staircase hall and three rooms are arranged in a line to the east. Late C17 closed-well dog-leg staircase rises to the attic: closed string with wavy splat balusters, chamfered square newels with tetrahedron finials and a moulded handrail, all of oak. Under the stairs is a cupboard fitted with a plank door on HL hinges and a second doorway with butterfly hinges. Sitting room to the west in the early C18 extension is entered via a late C19 four-panelled door. Rebuilt fire opening and exposed bridging beam and joists of the late C19.

To the east of the C17 staircase is a second sitting room with a heavy chamfered bridging beam from which a similar spine beam runs to the west, and east of this room is the present dining room with a stone chimneypiece introduced in the late C20. East of this room is the kitchen, now of late C20 character, and from it a doorway opens into the east end of the enclosed rear veranda.

The first floor has a number of bedrooms in line along the south elevation, accessed from a rear passageway in the upper floor of the enclosed veranda, which has been partly converted to bath and service rooms. The bedroom over the sitting room at the west end has complete full-height large-framed raised early C18 panelling and a moulded dado rail; boxed bridging beam and three four-panelled doors on HL hinges. The remaining bedrooms have minor details such as two-panelled early C18 doors and there are 8-inch oak floorboards throughout.

The attic, into which the C17 staircase rises, is inaccessible, but the roof structure is late C19.

HISTORY

The farmhouse is not one of those recorded as belonging to one of the two post-Conquest manors that existed within the parish, but instead began as a good-quality three-bay lobby entrance house in the middle of the C17 (the owner reports the existence of a datestone inscribed 1647, now hidden by the 1975 alterations). In the later C17 the house was nearly doubled in size towards the west, and was increased by a further room in the same direction in c1720. A major refurbishment in the late C19 concentrated on re-roofing and modernisation, without detracting from its general character.

SOURCES

Victoria County History of Bedfordshire (1912), Vol. III, 117-122 Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough (1968), 176-176

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION

Poplars Farmhouse is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The development of the building from a three-bay farmhouse of the mid C17 to a seven-bay structure by c1720 is clear from surviving historic fabric, with internal features that testify to a rise in social standing of the owner * There is a signficant survival of fabric from before 1700 and from before 1840, meeting the set criteria. * The surviving early C18 windows, door hood, panelling and the late C17 full-height staircase are of high quality and rarity * The standard C17 and C18 linear arrangement of rooms is apparent, as is the insertion of rear passageways in response to the desire for more privacy from the later C18.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

504132

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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