Yard Farmhouse

UPOTTERY ST 10 SE 10/122 Yard Farmhouse - - II Farmhouse. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, 1 of them dated 1624, refurbished in the early C19. Local stone and flint rubble, plastered on the front; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 brick; slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: 3-room plan farmhouse facing north-east. At the left (south- east) end is an inner room parlour with a gable-end stack. Next to it is the hall with an axial stack backing onto an unheated room (now used as a kitchen) at the right end. The stair rises from the hall along the front of the parlour. A dairy block projects to rear of the kitchen. Originally this house had a 3-room-and- through-passage plan but in the C20 most of the service end was demolished, the passage rear doorway was blocked and the passage enlarged to make the present kitchen. The original early C16 house was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room was then smaller than it is now. In the mid C16 the inner room was floored over whilst the hall was still heated by an open hearth fire. The hall stack was inserted in the mid - late C16, probably at the same time as the passage and service end was floored over. The hall was floored over in the early C17. The inner room was enlarged in the early C19 when it was converted to a parlour, the end stack was built and the staircase built. There is a plaque on the hall stack containing the date 1624. The stack could have been inserted then but it is thought to be too late for that. It is more likely to date the flooring of the hall. The house is 2 storeys with a C20 garage in front of the parlour and hall. Exterior: there are only 2 first floor front windows and one ground floor window. All are C20 casements and the latest have no glazing bars. There are similar windows to rear. The former passage front doorway is right of centre and it contains a plank door behind a C20 gabled porch. The roof is gable-ended to left and hipped to right. Interior: there is no old carpentry showing in the present kitchen since this end has been rebuilt. In the hall the fireplace is blocked although its large size is evident. The crossbeam has deep chamfers with step stops. At the upper (parlour) end there is an oak plank-and-muntin screen; the muntins are chamfered with straight cut stops high enough to accommodate a bench below. The parlour has no exposed carpentry and all the joinery here, including the stairs, is early C19. The centre part of the roof (over the hall and adjoining part over the parlour) is carried on 2 jointed crucks (papered over below tne ceiling) which are smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. The oak-framed crosswall over the hall/parlour screen is sooted on the hall side only. The doorway between the hall and passage chambers is 2-panel and dates from circa 1700.

Listing NGR: ST1931104468