Bury'S Farmhouse

Bury's Farmhouse

Farmhouse, now house. Probably 16th or 17th century in origin, remodelled in the mid 18th century and possibly in the 19th century, with recent renovation. The building is constructed of large random sandstone rubble with quoins and 19th-century tooled sandstone dressings, beneath a graduated slate roof. It contains an internal cruck frame.

The building follows a single-depth three-unit plan on a north-south axis, facing west. Originally single-storey, it was raised to two storeys in the 18th century. The facade has one-to-two windows, with a quoined vertical joint between the first and second windows, suggesting the north unit might be an extension (though the interior evidence is unclear). A 19th-century tooled gutter cornice runs across the front. The two-window portion has a square-headed doorway offset slightly left of centre, with plain square-cut jambs and lintel and a board door. To the right of the doorway is a large padstone or stylobate embedded in the masonry at ground level. At ground floor to the right are remains of a former two-light mullioned window in the masonry, abutting the left side of a square inserted window. A 19th-century rectangular window stands to the left at ground floor. Above these are similar but slightly smaller windows, all with raised sills, straight lintels, and recent two-light casements. The one-window portion to the left has a similar casement on each floor, that at ground floor being taller than the others, all with plain square-cut surrounds. There is a gable chimney to the left, a small ridge chimney at the junction, and a recent external tubular metal chimney attached to the right-hand gable wall. The right-hand gable wall has a chamfered one-light window at first floor. The rear shows traces of a former oblong window at ground floor in the centre bay and a square window in line with the ridge chimney, possibly a former fire-window.

Interior: Two full cruck trusses define a full-bay housepart that was formerly open to the roof, with a longitudinally partitioned and lofted half-bay service end to the south, and at least one other bay to the north rebuilt in the 18th or 19th century. Each truss has a tie-beam with spurs to the former wallplate, a collar and a yoke. The lower half of the west blade of the north truss has been removed, but the apex carries the stub of a diagonally-set former ridge, and the back of the east blade has a two-peghole diagonal lap-joint of a former windbrace to the north (in the direction of the apparent extension). The apex of the blades of the south truss has been sawn off above ceiling level, but the soffit of the tie-beam retains remains of a former clamstaff-and-daub partition intact and exposed on both sides of the east blade, with the left jamb of a former doorway, and empty mortices in the remainder. In the roof space the top of this truss has remains of wattle-and-daub panelling with hair plaster on both sides.

The housepart contains two large axial beams set edgewise and extending the full length of the bay, the west one featuring deep arched undercutting at its south end, with straight square-section joists tenoned in. None of these timbers are decorated. At the upper end is a fine large mid-18th-century fireplace with corbelled lintel, moulded surround and prominent moulded cornice. The absence of evidence of a smokehood and smoke-blackening on the exposed portions of the cruck blade and tie-beam to the right of the stack suggest there was a smoke bay at this end and that the upper floor was inserted. The service bay has a pair of chamfered axial beams with curvy joists tenoned in; the soffit of that on the east has stave mortices of a former partition.