Richard Jefferies Museum

RICHARD JEFFERIES MUSEUM, MARLBOROUGH ROAD, COATE, SWINDON

A 17th-century farmhouse with an adjoining early 19th-century house, now used as a museum. The farmstead is the birthplace of the nature writer Richard Jefferies (1848-1887) and is thought to have formed the main inspiration for his books, including Bevis and Amaryllis at the Fair.

EXTERIOR

The 17th-century house is built of limestone rubble with a thatched roof and brick gable stack. It is a low, single-storey building with an attic above, featuring a two-bay east front with a central entrance porch added at a later date. An early 19th-century slate cat slide extension has been added to the south and west ends. The early 19th-century farmhouse is attached to its west. This is a three-storey building constructed of Flemish bond brickwork with a slate roof and brick chimney stacks at both gable ends.

The north front has three bays with an entrance positioned left of centre comprising a six-panelled door with splayed stone lintel. To the left of the entrance is a hipped bay window with twenty-pane sashes, and to the right is a three-light leaded timber window with a splayed stone lintel. Above the entrance on the first floor is a two-light leaded timber window flanked on either side by three-light leaded windows, all with splayed stone lintels. At attic level above these are two smaller three-light leaded timber windows. The rear of the house to the south has scattered fenestration. The west gable end features two-light timber windows to the right on both first floor and attic levels.

INTERIOR

The 17th-century farmhouse has been significantly altered and restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. The early 19th-century house retains panelled window reveals on the ground and first floor levels. There is a contemporary inlaid slate fireplace on the ground floor, and in the first floor bedroom a timber fire surround with grate and a built-in six-panelled wardrobe.

OUTBUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES

The garden, orchard and farmyard are enclosed by a stone wall along Marlborough Road, which was moved and rebuilt in the mid-20th century. The site contains a series of 19th-century outbuildings and structures, some incorporating earlier fabric possibly dating from the 17th or 18th centuries. These include a dairy (re-roofed in the mid-20th century), a barn with a stable and hayloft above, a pigsty, a workshop, a garden bothy, a ha ha, and a boundary stone moved from elsewhere on the former estate.

HISTORY

The farmstead originates from the 17th century and was formerly known as Coate Farm. It became the Richard Jefferies Museum in the mid-20th century. The various buildings demonstrate how the farmstead evolved over time, forming an interesting surviving example of a group of vernacular buildings on the outskirts of Swindon. The surrounding landscape, in particular Coate Water Reservoir, together with the farmstead, formed the main inspiration for Jefferies' literary work.