Dove house to St John's Farm

Dove house to St John's Farm

This is a square-plan dove house, documented as a dove house from the 17th century, but incorporating medieval fabric possibly from the former Hospital of St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdelene. The building is constructed largely of rubble and Barnack stone with limestone ashlar and clunch dressings. The roof is of plain tiles, with some surviving on the northern side of the hipped roof.

The dove house rises through two storeys and has a pyramidal tiled roof with gablets to the north and south sides. The earliest surviving fabric appears to be the principal walling of the north and east elevations, constructed of rubble stone with dressed stone at corner junctions and other features. At the base of the east elevation are the remains of an arcade with two stone arches built into the walling. The northern arch is supported on two stone piers, largely now below ground level but uncovered during recent works. These comprise a square central pillar with semi-circular pilasters on their inner edges, supporting a two-centre arch of dressed stone. The bases of the arch are poorly located on the tops of the piers, suggesting the piers may belong to an earlier building with the arches built or rebuilt later. The arch is infilled but appears originally to have been open. The southern arch appears similar but is less visible and more obscured by infill; it is unclear if this arch was originally open.

The north wall shows no corresponding arcade but has traces of blocked openings at ground-floor level and at least one definite blocked opening at first-floor level, with possibly another immediately to its east. The ground-floor opening survives only as a relieving arch of rubble stone; the narrow span suggests this was originally a window. At first-floor level on the western edge of the north elevation is another blocked opening indicated by a stone relieving arch, with two dressed stones below that may form part of an eastern window jamb and further dressed stones appearing to form part of a sill. To the east of this, another blocked opening is indicated principally by a row of three dressed stones forming a cill. The presence of a doorway at this level would indicate some means of external access to the first floor, possibly by external stair against the wall. The truncated window opening and lack of quoins on the north-west corner indicate that originally the north wall continued westwards, forming part of a longer range. The early plan of the site confirms this interpretation.

The south elevation is partly obscured by an adjoining garage but has one central upper window partly covered by the garage roof. Internally the opening has the remains of wide splays, and the tall, narrow opening contains re-used limestone and clunch dressings. It is blocked with modern brickwork.

The west wall has three openings. One appears to be a modern doorway, perhaps of late 19th or early 20th-century date, replacing the blocked doorway in the north elevation. Adjacent to the doorway is a stone-dressed ventilation loop, the only window opening to the former ground floor, with a rebated reveal and wide internal splays. The upper window in the west elevation was wide and of domestic proportions. The original width of the opening is defined by the stone lintel with provision for chamfered jambs. The jambs of clunch have partly weathered away on the north side and been roughly replaced with two pieces of chamfered limestone reducing the width, and a stone sill inserted at the same time reduced the height. The blocking beneath the sill is brickwork. The top part of the opening has also been blocked with clunch and by a lintel housed in the south jamb. The ground-floor opening represents the best survival in the building, with evidence that the inner edge of the surround has a slight rebate on all four sides, possibly designed to take some form of external shutter.

Interior access was limited during building surveys due to equipment storage, but the principal characteristics are evidence of a former suspended floor with joist holes evident. The internal face of the north and west walls is missing, with just the core showing in the west wall. Evidence of smooth plasterwork records a domestic function for the former building. The internal face of the northern elevation displays the rubble voussoirs of the arch over the ground-floor doorway.

The roof structure is of hipped construction with gablets to the north and south, possibly to allow ventilation. The structure relies on a ring of purlins on which the rafters rest and from which the vertical gablets are built. The undersides of the rafters have nail holes for lathes showing that the ceiling has been plastered. The pigeon loft floor is of boards held up by collars linking opposed purlins; only one survives in-situ. There is one tying collar, halved to a pair of rafters. The scantling is light but not unusual for the 16th century.

On the north wall, the soffit and jamb of the blocked opening are visible on the interior, and the rubble voussoirs of the arch over the ground-floor doorway can be clearly seen. The opening has been blocked and then further disturbed by roughly built brickwork over some slightly projecting rubble masonry, with two pieces of re-used ashlar. This is probably part of a major vertical crack in the wall, repaired with brick internally and stone rubble externally.