Yeatmans

Yeatmans is a house with two parts, located on Lower Street in Okeford Fitzpaine. The left range, which runs parallel to the road, is possibly from the 16th century or earlier and was remodeled in the late 16th or early 17th century, with later alterations. The right range, built at a right angle to the road, dates from the 17th century. The left range features a timber frame with brick nogging above a rubble plinth and has a thatched roof with a brick stack to the left of the door. The right range is constructed of banded rubble and flint, with ashlar quoins, and also has a thatched roof, gabled at the front and half-hipped at the rear.

The layout includes a cross passage between the two ranges, with the stack of the left range backing onto it, while the right range forms a cross-wing. The left range is a single storey with an attic and has irregular fenestration, including 20th-century casements with leaded lights and a similar dormer. The right block features a 2-light hollow chamfered stone mullioned window on the east side and in the gable, with returned labels on the gable and ground floor windows. The west wall has two 3-light timber mullioned windows on the upper floor with ovolo-moulded mullions.

Inside, the left range contains a room with intersecting deep chamfered ceiling beams and wall plates, as well as a fireplace with a chamfered timber bressumer. The right range has deep stop-chamfered ceiling beams and a fireplace with reused stowed, moulded stone jambs and a timber bressumer that matches. An upper floor room features plasterwork with a vine motif and a cupboard with chipwork carving. Additionally, the left range appears to have remnants of what may be a redundant jointed cruck truss between the stack and the cross passage. It is possible that the house originally started as a timber-framed, jointed cruck, open hall with the upper end to the east, which was then ceiled with a stack added in the 16th century. In the 17th century, a new cross wing was constructed to the west, becoming the main living area, while the former upper end transitioned into a service wing.