Tidbury Green Farmhouse

Tidbury Green Farmhouse

A farmhouse originally dating from the 17th century, with alterations and remodelling in the 18th and 19th centuries, accompanied by attached outbuildings. The building is constructed of red brick with plain clay tile roofs.

The house forms a slightly irregular rectangle on plan, created from an L-shaped range with a slightly later additional cross-wing set into the re-entrant angle. A cluster of outbuildings extends from the north-east corner.

The house is of two storeys and attic with a steeply pitched roof and two cross-wings of different heights. The windows are set in segmental-arched openings with brick voussoirs; most have been replaced in uPVC. The main elevation comprises three bays with a wide central entrance doorway of pegged timber beneath a gabled timber canopy porch featuring pierced barge boards. To the right of the doorway is a three-light window, with a blocked vertical window opening to the left. The first floor has three vertical windows. A three-course brick plat band articulates the floors, continuing around the front range and its contemporary cross wing. Common rafter ends are exposed at the eaves. The steeply pitched roof carries rectangular brick stacks with brick offsets at both ends; the stack on the front slope sits below the ridge, towards the eaves. The left-hand return displays a three-light window to the ground floor below the plat band, with a vertical window above and a course of brick cogging across the gable containing a square attic window. The cross wing extends to the left with windows to ground and first floors; the ground floor window is blocked and shows signs of multiple phases of alteration. The rear elevation is irregular. The full-height cross wing to the right has the plat band continuing to divide the floors and cogging across the gable; a three-light window occupies the ground floor with a blocked opening to the first floor, and a small square attic window sits in the gable. To the left, a catslide roof covers a single-storey additional bay which is gabled, with windows to the ground floor and gable in flat-headed openings. A tall brick stack with two offsets rises from the catslide roof, built partly externally, with a rectangular stack towards the ridge rebuilt in the 1940s. A brick lean-to porch was added to the re-entrant angle between the larger wing and the house in the 1950s. The right-hand return is partly obscured by the outbuilding cluster; it has a bricked-up window opening to the ground floor below the plat band, a blind first floor, and a small attic window in the gable.

Interior

The ground floor contains very large chamfered ceiling beams, with exposed joists in parts. Doors are a mixture of 18th-century plank and batten examples and 19th-century four-panelled doors, set within pegged 18th-century or earlier doorways.

The ground floor is arranged around a central hall with a wide 18th-century entrance door, quarry tiled floor, and an 18th-century plank and batten door to the 18th-century stair, now enclosed with later timberwork. Principal rooms flank either side. The room to the left has a 1950s tile fire surround and internal chimney breast; the fireplace was added in the 1950s but likely uses an earlier opening that had been closed before the mid-20th century. The room to the right is the former kitchen, featuring a very large inglenook with deeply chamfered ceiling beam indicative of 17th-century date. Exposed ceiling beams are also chamfered. The inglenook, with a large timber beam and shallow moulded shelf, now houses a large late-19th-century range. To its left is a small spice cupboard set in the rear wall. To the right is a very large bacon or smoking chamber, large enough to stand in, accessed from inside the inglenook and possibly via a cupboard in the wall to the right. To the rear, in the main range, is a semi-basement cellar with very large timbers, flagstone floor, brick plinth with slate top running around three sides, a blocked external opening, and an opening to the northernmost room in the range, the dairy. The dairy contains a brick-built arcaded plinth with terracotta tiled work surface around three sides, a terracotta tile floor, and a very large chamfered beam with exposed joists. The present kitchen, formerly the scullery, occupies the additional bay between the main range and earlier cross wing, with a roughly-hewn chamfered beam and small fireplace in the south-east corner.

The first floor landing accesses the attic of the additional wing, now a bathroom, in which chamfered purlins are exposed. The main range contains two rooms. The room to the right has a very large, roughly-hewn and partly chamfered beam with exposed joists. The chimney breast from the large inglenook below rises up the side wall, with a small faux fireplace opening with mosaic surround set towards one side. To the left of the chimney breast is a cupboard giving access to a very large chamber partly inside the chimney breast, interpreted as a priest hole large enough for two people. To the right of the chimney breast lies the likely location of an earlier winder stair from the ground floor. The room to the left has a ceiling beam with very steep chamfers; the ceiling is boarded below the joists. A small corner fireplace on the external walls displays a semi-circular-headed grate with mid-19th-century timber surround.

A straight flight of possibly late 18th or early 19th-century stairs provides access to the attics from the centre of the main range. One purlin has been replaced but two closed trusses survive, formed of very large tie beams interrupted by wide doorways with heavy pegged timber surrounds, paired principal rafters, trenched purlins, queen posts, collars and yokes. All rooms are plastered and limewashed, indicating use for food storage. One attic room was formerly a cheese room and retains holes in the roof timbers for shelving. Floors are of wide timber boarding.

Subsidiary Features

Close to the rear wall stands a brick-lined well. Attached at the north-east corner is a cluster of outbuildings comprising a washhouse and privy, both constructed in brick. The washhouse has plain clay tile to the northern roof slope and Roman tiles to the south, retaining its brick-built boiler. The privy has a plain clay tile roof. Attached to both the privy and washhouse is a brick kennel, now used for storage, with a low doorway. A further small low kennel with a floor-level opening sits between the washhouse and the house.

The former implement shed to the south-west of the house is not included in the listing.