Purcombe Farmhouse

Purcombe Farmhouse

This is a substantial house of early 16th-century date, substantially modified during the 17th century, then altered and extended in the 18th or 19th century, with further repairs and alterations in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The 20th and early 21st-century lean-to additions to the north and south ends are excluded from the listing.

The house is constructed of random local chert stone rubble and cob—though originally entirely of cob—with limestone and red brick dressings. The front elevation displays areas of brick patching and substantial brick and rubble buttresses. The hipped roof is thatched with combed wheat reed and carries an off-centre brick ridge stack. The windows are late 20th and early 21st-century timber casements; however, an unglazed oak mullioned window of four lights, probably dating to the 16th century, remains visible in the north wall from the interior.

The building is orientated north to south and rectangular in plan. It is a three-unit, cross-passage house of one-and-a-half storeys, with an abutting 18th or 19th-century former animal house featuring a high lean-to roof at its north end, now incorporated into the dwelling. A 20th-century blockwork lean-to has been built against the north end, and an early 21st-century addition stands to the south, replacing a corrugated sheeting shed. These modern lean-to additions are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.

The principal, east-facing elevation has a wide off-centre entrance with a modern half-glazed plank door beneath a gabled brick porch added in the second half of the 20th century. To the left of the entrance are two windows of two and three lights respectively, and a two-light casement stands to the right. The right-hand bay contains a plank stable door. The upper floor has two casements. A pair of early 21st-century glazed doors has been inserted in the north return, visible within the open-sided lean-to. The rear, west-facing wall contains a half-glazed door at the far left with a casement beyond, a 20th-century plank door marking the cross-passage position, and two further casements to the right. A single casement above the northern doorway, added in the early 21st century, is the only upper-floor opening on this elevation.

Internally, the main entrance leads onto a brick-floored cross passage. To its right is a plank-and-muntin screen containing two 16th-century doorways with cambered or peaked heads and a blocked flat-arched doorway. The left side comprises part rubble stone (the fireplace rear wall) with a timber screen to its west end; this screen has a doorway with a shouldered arch, though it appears to have been cut back and may originally have been cambered. Head beams with chamfered hood mouldings run the length of the passage at ceiling level, with exposed joists visible. The former service rooms to the right of the passage appear unheated and retain axial half beams. An opening in the north end wall, fitted with a re-used doorcase of shouldered jambs, leads through to the modern kitchen—located within the converted animal house—where a modern staircase provides access to an inserted mezzanine.

The passage gives access to the former hall or principal room through a doorway with a shouldered head in the southern partition. This room has a stone-flagged floor and a central lateral ceiling beam with deep chamfers and stepped stops; an undecorated beam towards the northern end is considered to mark the original hearth area, into which a large fireplace has since been inserted, backing onto the cross passage. The fireplace features an elm bressumer with stone and brick jambs, and a timber-framed stack of stakes and daub, supported on the mantel beam and tapering upwards. The internal surface is plastered for fire protection. In the north-west corner stands a 17th or 18th-century enclosed dogleg staircase with a two-plank door bearing strap hinges at its base. At the south end of the room is a full-height partition wall with chamfered hood moulding and wattle-and-daub infill.

The central section of this partition wall contains a remarkable early 16th-century wall painting, thought to have originally covered a larger area. Painted directly onto the daub, the surviving portion depicts a religious figure believed to be St Clement, identifiable by the anchor he holds in his right hand. He wears a red chasuble with a pallium embroidered with crosses. A halo is visible around his head, and although the mitre is unclear, lappets—usually hanging at the back of a mitre—appear depicted at the side of his head. To the east of the painting is an opening into an inner room or parlour with a slightly elevated floor level. To the west is a doorway with a cambered head and chamfered jambs, now containing a modern door, which leads to a lobby where a modern staircase accesses a first-floor bedroom within the hipped end of the roof. Beyond this doorway, at the west end of the partition wall, is a simple plank door with strap hinges, now blocked by the inserted stairs.

The enclosed dogleg staircase in the former hall provides access to two bedrooms; the right-hand room is entered through a pegged flat-arched doorway with a simple plank door bearing strap hinges.

The roof comprises three substantial jointed cruck trusses, each consisting of vertical posts (originally buried in the wall, now partly detached from the rear wall) with curved tops onto which rafters are morticed, and high cambered collars. Two sets of heavy-section, trenched purlins are present. All visible roof timbers are heavily smoke-blackened.