The Hyde Farmhouse

The Hyde Farmhouse

House dating from the early 15th century and around 1600, extended during the 18th and 19th centuries and again in the 20th century. It stands on Mountnessing Road at Blackmore, on the west side of the road.

The building is timber-framed and weatherboarded, roofed with handmade red clay tiles. It consists of a main range of 2 bays facing northeast, with a 19th-century external stack at the right end and a late 16th-century axial stack near the left end (surviving from a medieval hall range that formerly occupied the same site). An early 15th-century cross-wing extends to the left. An 18th and 19th-century extension to the rear has an internal stack at its left side, creating an L-shaped plan overall. A 20th-century conservatory has been added to the rear of the main range.

The exterior is 2 storeys. The front elevation of the cross-wing has one 19th-century casement of 4+4 lights on each floor. The main range displays 2 early 19th-century horizontal sash windows of 6+6 lights on each storey, and a small 20th-century top-hung casement in an original aperture above a 20th-century gabled porch with a half-glazed door to the left. The roof of the main range is substantially higher than that of the earlier cross-wing, overlaying it with a gablet above the ridge. The main stack has grouped shafts. The left elevation of the cross-wing is painted brick on the ground floor with plaster above, inscribed with the date 1973, and contains 20th-century casements and a half-glazed door. A late 19th-century pump is attached to this wall near the front corner. The right and rear elevations are weatherboarded.

The interior of the cross-wing contains an underbuilt jetty with heavy plain joists of horizontal section jointed to a chamfered binding beam with central tenons, and a blocked original stair trap at the rear right. A large wood-burning hearth, rebricked at the sides, has an inserted post in front of it replacing the former storey post between the bays. The framing includes jowled posts and heavy studding with curved tension braces trenched to the outside. There is a groove for sliding shutters in the soffit of the front tie-beam, now infilled with plaster. The rear tie-beam is severed for a corridor. A cambered central tie-beam is present. Wallplates and tie-beams are chamfered with mitred stops. The roof is a complete crownpost roof with a plain square crownpost and 4 axial braces. The rafters at the right side project into an unused space by the stack.

The main range has chamfered binding and axial beams with lamb's tongue stops, and plain joists of vertical section. On the ground floor the studs between the 2 original rooms have been removed. A wide wood-burning hearth with 0.33-metre jambs and a shallow brick arch has been reinforced in the 20th century with an inserted relieving beam above and an iron arch below. On the first floor the original partition between the rooms remains intact, with twin matching curved tension braces to a central post and butted studding. The ceilings are similar to the floor below but were probably inserted soon after construction, as the joists are supported on wedge-shaped clamps; the rear one is strengthened with modern bolts. The roof is of clasped purlin type with arched spacers between the purlins. The wattle and daub of the partition at the left end is almost complete. Some reused smoke-blackened rafters are present, probably from the former hall on the same site. Several old ledged doors survive throughout the house with original wrought-iron hinges; one on the ground floor of the left range is of rebated planks, indicating an origin before the 18th century.