Chapel Farmhouse

SJ 90 SE 7/30

ESSINGTON BURSNIPS ROAD Chapel Farmhouse

28.02.91

II

Farmhouse. Circa late C18, remodelled and extended in late C19. Built of large tax bricks in garden wall bond, some vitrified. Slate roof with gabled ends and projecting brick eaves courses. Tax brick axial and gable end stacks, the axial stack heightened and with clay tile pots.

Three-room plan original house, the large left-hand room (kitchen) and smaller centre room heated from back-to-back fireplaces in axial stack, the smaller right hand (south) room heated from a gable end stack. In late C19 an unheated one-room plan extension was built at the left (north) end with a wing at the back and two other rear wings and outshuts were built, probably when the house was divided into two cottages.

Two storeys. Four-window west front, the left bay is late C19 addition. C20 two-light casement without glazing bars and C20 half-glazed doors to left and right of centre. At rear central one storey gable-ended wing, left hand wing heightened with flat roof and narrow two storey wing on right, with outshuts between.

Interior: Left hand room of original house has chamfered axial beams in centre and small right hand room, the former with run-out stops and C20 chimneypiece, the latter without stops and C19 chimneypiece. Late C19 joinery throughout including plank doors and two winder staircases. Roof has large purlins and later common rafters.

Note: Tax bricks were large bricks made to avoid the brick tax of 1784 (repealed in 1850). To combat this, double tax was then levied on bricks over 150 cubic inches. These 9x5x4.5 inch bricks are over 150 cubic inches and therefore likely to be C18. There was a large brickworks nearby to the west.

Listing NGR: SJ9717004486