Forest Farmhouse

FOREST FARMHOUSE

Farmhouse, Winchester Road, Waltham Chase, Shedfield. Probably late 18th century with work from an earlier house on site, incorporating 19th and mid-20th century alterations.

Built of red and blue brick with a plain old tile roof and brick chimney stacks. The windows are early 20th century wooden casements of 2 and 3 lights with vertical glazing bars. The building is 2 storeys with 4 bays and a rear outshut, originally under a catslide roof containing the stair.

The west elevation (the original entrance elevation) has 1:3 bays, with the left bay probably incorporating remnants of the earlier house and the entrance originally at the centre of the right-hand section. Below ground-floor cill level the brickwork is red brick and blue headers in Flemish bond; above this it is blue brick in header bond with red header-brick quoins, platband and stepped eaves band. Red-brick dressings and arches decorate the openings, segmental on the ground floor and flat above, although all but one of the latter are now replaced by concrete lintels. The entrance is now a 2-light window with a matching window above; otherwise there are 3-light windows. Stacks stand to the right side of the left bay. The rear elevation has been much reworked and features a tile-hung flat-roofed continuous dormer re-using early 20th century windows of 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 lights. On the ground floor the brick is laid in Flemish bond; the right section has a 20th century pent porch fronting a door and window both below a wide segmental arch, with one window to the right and two to the left, and one section of untouched brickwork remaining between door and window. On the right return, a chimney stack was removed internally and fireplaces replaced: on the ground floor by a bow window supporting a balcony rail, and on the first floor by a French window. A small outshut window was replaced by a doorway.

Interior: The left (north) room is dominated by a very large chimney, probably originally an external stack to the earlier house, with a reworked 20th century fireplace. The joists and spine-beams are re-used timbers. Against the rear (east) side of this chimney is an 18th century cupboard with a narrow strap-hinged board door. The walls of the original entrance passage have been removed, creating a long narrow room. The large surviving fireplace, reworked in the 20th century, has a brick hearth and chamfered spine-beams with lamb's tongue stops. A bolection-moulded architrave surrounds an H-and-L hinged door of 4 raised panels, the upper panels featuring heart-shaped cut-outs. The door leads to a brick-paved lobby and stair, the lobby having similarly-moulded architraves to doorways on left and right; the door on the right has 4 raised and fielded panels, an iron latch and draw-bar sockets (probably the original front door). The kitchen has a brick floor, rafters re-used as joists, and a 4-panel door to an under-stair cupboard with re-used H-and-L hinges. An 18th century winder stair has plain stick balusters, square newels and some beaded dado boards. On the first floor, the right-hand (south) room has cupboards flanking a former fireplace with raised panels and H-and-L hinges; in the central room, cupboards flanking the fireplace have later 4-panel doors. The roof contains a central queen-post truss with a re-used tie-beam, pegged coupled rafters and clasped purlins. At its north end the farmhouse is attached to a barn with a connecting door.