West End Farmhouse, including connected dairy outbuilding and boundary wall is a Grade II listed building in the Cherwell local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 December 1987. Farmhouse. 3 related planning applications.
West End Farmhouse, including connected dairy outbuilding and boundary wall
- WRENN ID
- hollow-pinnacle-soot
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Cherwell
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 December 1987
- Type
- Farmhouse
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
West End Farmhouse is a farmhouse probably converted from two cottages dating to the early or mid-18th century. It is grade II listed.
The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with wooden lintels, and is roofed with plain brown tiles with brick gable stacks, the caps of which have been rebuilt with modern red bricks. The main structure has a two-bay plan with two storeys and an attic. The ground floor of the main body contains two principal rooms divided by a central entrance hall with stairs. A mid-19th century extension to the rear (north) adds an additional western room, an eastern kitchen, and a central WC. The upper floor features a corridor at the top of the stairs connecting rooms to the east and west ends, with a small room in the centre above the entrance hall and an inserted bathroom to the north-west corner. The building was historically two separate cottages but has been unified since the mid-20th century, with 1980s alterations that obscure the historic central partition.
The façade to West End displays a three-window front with the doorway positioned right of centre. There are two-light casements in the outer bays on the ground and first floors, and an additional casement to the right of the doorway, replacing an earlier entrance. A faint trace in the rubblestone coursing indicates what may have been a front door to the western cottage, potentially infilled before the 1950s. The gable ends to the east and west are largely blank, except for one small inserted 1980s casement on the west side of the ground floor. The lean-to extension to the north has a later-added door at the east end with three small casements. The original entry to the outshut at the western end of the lean-to is evident as a faint outline in the rubblestone coursing. Central chimney stacks stand at both gable ends with caps rebuilt in later-20th century brick. The western stack has a pair of shafts linked at the cap.
Interior features include heavy chamfered beams to both ground-floor rooms of the main range, with two large hearths at the gable ends. The north-east hearth is blocked, and the south-west hearth has a late-20th century inserted fireplace. A central entrance divides the rooms and leads to a straight flight of stairs added in the 1980s, replacing the two sets of stairs that historically flanked the end stacks. The positions of the historic stairs are confirmed by replacement floorboards in the first-floor rooms—to the south of the stack in the west room and to the north in the east room. Above the new central stairs is a partially concealed cross beam, with a sawn-off spine beam with chamfered edges running through from the western room, likely indicating the position of the historic central partition. Two blocked windows are visible in the north elevation within the roof void of the lean-to, with the blocked eastern window also visible from the east bedroom. A third window opening was likely positioned where the door now provides access to the roof void.
The roof is of clasped purlin construction with three trusses with collar ties. It has undergone alteration and reworking, with reused timbers bearing open mortice sockets to several purlins and many replaced machine-cut rafters evident. A waterproof membrane sheet has been laid on top of the rafters, and tiles have been re-laid, probably in the 1980s. Within the attic space, the stack on the west side is of rubble stone, and a narrow, slanted stack of red brick (probable pre-1850 date owing to irregular brick size) is positioned to the east.
A square-plan dairy outbuilding of late 19th or early 20th century date stands adjacent to the house to the north. It is built of banded red and yellow brick and is connected to the main house by a link block added by 1922. Internally, the dairy has square quarry tiles to the floor and machine-sawn roof timbers. A rubble limestone boundary wall runs to the north side of the house in line with the eastern gable-end, adjoining No. 54.
Detailed Attributes
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