Upper House Farmhouse

Upper House Farmhouse

A farmhouse of probable 15th-century origins, substantially altered and extended around 1600 with further modifications in the mid-19th century. The building is timber-framed with rendered and painted brick infill on a rubble base, partly roughcast, with stone-tiled roofs laid in diminishing courses.

The original structure consists of a central range of probably three framed bays aligned north to south, comprising a hall with a screens passage at the south end and a solar at the north end. Around 1600, a chimney with two diagonal brick shafts was added to the west side and an upper floor was inserted. At the same period, a three-bay parallel west range was added (later fitted with an external rubble chimney and brick stack at its north end), a three-bay south cross-wing with an external rubble chimney on its south side (this wing may replace an earlier service wing), and a north-east wing of two and a half bays, the eastern half-bay being a chimney bay. This north-east wing has a lean-to outshut with a catslide roof on its north side.

The building is mainly two storeys with a cellar. The original framed section displays close-set studding with three rows from sill to wall-plate and a collar and tie-beam truss at the north end with close-set struts beneath the collar and a V-strut above. The other sections have four or five rows of square and rectangular panels from sill to wall-plate with some solid upper corner braces, mostly collar and tie-beam trusses with struts. The south wing has a tie-beam truss with raking struts at the rear. The west range features a jettied first floor on the west side and at the north end with pendant ball finials beneath the end and two intermediate posts. The south wing's first floor is also jettied on shaped brackets at the west end.

The west front elevation shows the west range with a pair of three-light ground floor windows and two three-light first floor windows, all with moulded architraves. A cellar window with cambered brick head is set in the rubble base. At the southern end is a segmental timber archway leading to the main entrance with half-glazed double doors, approached by a flight of brick steps with an iron hand-rail. In the angle with the south wing is a two-light ground floor casement. The west gable end of the south cross-wing has a three-light first floor casement with plank weathering. The north gable end of the original range displays a ground floor cavetto-mullioned five-light window with a moulded head and sill; a similar four-light window appears in the angle with the north-east wing. The north side of the north-east wing features a large timber-framed gabled dormer jettied on shaped brackets with pendant finials beneath the end posts. It has scalloped bargeboards and above the roof truss collar is a small coffin-shaped window.

Internally, the original hall is recorded as having a central roof truss with arch-braced collar and a doorway at the west end of the screens passage with original moulded jambs (the head has been removed). The passage has an open-timbered ceiling supporting a gallery, now incorporated with the inserted first floor. The north wall of the hall contains an original doorway with a four-centred head and sunk spandrels. The 17th-century chimney incorporates a 14th-century stone with a cusped traceried head. Main ceiling beams are exposed and chamfered. A first floor room retains some 17th-century panelling. At the head of the staircase an octagonal newel post with a finial survives.