Chapel Farmhouse

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 05/09/2012

SO 36 NE 5/67 11.5.59

WIGMORE CP DEERFOLD Chapel Farmhouse

I

Farmhouse, now house. Early C15, altered late C16, refronted c1800. Timber-framed with rendered infill on rubble base, refronted in rubble with brick dressings. Slate roofs with brick stack to front of ridge. Hall-house of four framed bays aligned east/west; the hall occupied the three western bays and there was a two-storey bay at the west end. The hall was divided into two storeys in the C16, and a large chimney inserted in the second bay from the east end. The main entrance is situated immediately to the rear of the chimney. Framing: four rows of panels from sill to wall- plate exposed in rear north elevation. Wall posts are visible in south front elevation. There is also a collar and tie-beam truss with a V-strut above the collar at the east end. South front elevation: windows are all C19 case- ments. There are two 2-light windows and a 3-light window with cambered brick heads on the ground floor and three first floor 2-light windows. The main entrance in the third bay from the west end has a C19 gabled timber porch on shaped brackets and a ledged and battened C19 door. The north elevation has the remains of two original 4-light wood-mullioned windows and there is recorded to be the remains of an original arched doorhead in the west end. A C19 rubble wing adjoins the east end of one bay and two storeys (lower in height than the main building). There is a 2-light casement on both floors of the south elevation and a similar porch and door to that of the main part. Interior: roof has original collar and tie-beam trusses. The two in the former hall have large raking struts and a V-strut above the collar, moulded tie-beams and are carried on moulded posts with shaped heads and cusped arch-braces. There are subsidiary arch-braced collar trusses forming segmental arches. The wall-plates are brattished and there are three tiers of moulded purlins and three tiers of ornately cusped swept wind-braces, the central tier forming concave lozenge panels. The main roof truss separating the hall from the west bay has three struts beneath the collar and the roof above the west bay is of similar construction but simpler detail. There is recorded to be a C16 doorway in the wall dividing the former hall from the west bay. Also the main first floor fireplace incorporates some reused slip-tiles of geometrical and foliated designs. The farmhouse has been connected with a chapel in Deerfold Forest used for heretical services but would appear to be a purely secular building of later date than the chapel in question. (RCHM, Herefs, Vol III, p 208-9, item 3; BoE, p 233).

Listing NGR: SO3942868435