Bournside Farmhouse

Bournside Farmhouse

Farmhouse, late 15th century or early 16th century, massively rebuilt and enlarged in the late 16th century or early 17th century, extensively modernised in the 19th century, with 20th century service additions and some modernisation. The building is timber-framed but largely underbuilt and faced with whitewashed 19th century brick. It has brick stacks and chimneyshafts, and a peg-tile roof.

Plan and Development

The farmhouse is U-shaped in plan. The main block faces north and contains a 4-room plan with central lobby entrances to front and back. The centre rooms are larger and between them stands a large axial stack serving back-to-back fireplaces. The left (east) room is the kitchen with a small 20th century service room at its left end and another service room projecting to the rear, also of 20th century date. To the right of the stack is the dining room, formerly the hall, which has been enlarged to incorporate the small end room. The main stair is 19th century and positioned to the rear of the dining room. A one-room parlour wing projects at right angles to the rear of the right (west) end and has an outer lateral stack.

The present layout has evolved through several modernisations which have largely hidden or removed evidence of the late medieval house. However, it appears that the dining room was the original hall, probably a single bay open to the roof. A stack was inserted into the main block and the basic layout was created in the late 16th century or early 17th century. The rear lobby entrance was probably then the main doorway. The parlour wing was likely added at the same period or possibly slightly later.

The house is two storeys with attics in the roofspace.

Exterior

The front elevation is nearly symmetrical with 5 windows. The left bay is a 20th century addition containing casements with glazing bars. Another similar window serves the kitchen, whilst the remainder are 19th century 16-pane sashes. A contemporary French window with glazing bars opens to the dining room. The central doorway contains a 19th century 4-panel door under a flat hood on shaped brackets. The roof is hipped at both ends with gablets. The star-shaped chimneyshaft was rebuilt following the Great Storm of 1987.

The right end, including the parlour wing, has a 20th century central porch under a monopitch roof. Above it stands a shallow double-gabled bay clad in tiles. The parlour wing roof is half-hipped and a 20th century 2-storey bay window projects from the end. All rear windows are 20th century casements, mostly with glazing bars.

Interior

The interior contains work from all building periods. Only the kitchen fireplace is exposed; it remains partly blocked and has a replacement lintel of pine. Exposed joists over the kitchen are of large scantling and may form part of the late medieval house. The main stair, dining room and end room result from 19th century modernisation and have no exposed carpentry. The lower part of the stair has stick balusters and a mahogany handrail.

The parlour and chamber above feature 4-panel intersecting beam ceilings, chamfered with bar-scroll stops on the ground floor and scroll stops only on the first floor. The framed crosswall in the right end of the main block is partly exposed at first floor level, displaying large framing with a wide curving tension brace. The attics include a couple of late 17th century or early 18th century 2-panel doors on H-hinges.

Much of the roof structure is hidden, but it is clear that most of the main block and the parlour wing have a late 16th century or early 17th century structure of a side purlin roof type. However, one bay survives of the late 15th century or early 16th century roof over the former hall, now the dining room, with closed tie-beam trusses at each end. These have plain crown posts with curving down braces and up braces to the crown purlin. The roofspace is not accessible and it is therefore unknown whether this roof is smoke-blackened.