Richards Farmhouse

PAYHEMBURY LOWER TALE ST 00 SE 3/99 Richards Farmhouse - GV II Farmhouse. Early - mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, some late C19 alterations. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, the rear block is partly rebuilt in C19 brick; slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan: L-plan farmhouse. The main block faces north-east. It has a 3-room-and- through-passage plan. At the right (north-west) end is an inner room parlour with a gable-end stack. Next to it is the hall with an axial stack backing onto the passage. At the left (south-west) end is a small unheated service room, probably a dairy or buttery originally. A kitchen block projects at right angles to rear of the left end and overlaps the rear of the passage. It has a gable-end stack. The main block roof is not the original and therefore it is not possible to determine the early structural history of the place. Nevertheless it seems likely that the house began as some type of open hall house, maybe heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the mid or late C16 and the room was floored over in the early or mid C17. The inner room was refurbished or rebuilt as a parlour about the same time. The kitchen block is also early or mid C17. House is 2 storeys with secondary service outshots to rear of the hall and parlour. Exterior: irregular 3-window front of late C19 and C20 casesments with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is left of centre. It is flanked by sloping brick buttresses and contains a late Cl9 part-glazed panelled-door. The roof is gable- ended. Interior: the lower (service room) side of the passage is lined with an oak plank- and-muntin screen, maybe an original low partition screen. The timbers are of large scantling and the screen contains a large Tudor arch doorway, chamfered with diagonal cut stops. The hall fireplace has panelled Beerstone ashlar jambs and a chamfered oak lintel. It contains an inserted cloam oven. Both hall and parlour have chamfered crossbeams. The crosswall between these rooms is another oak plank- and-muntin screen, exposed only on the parlour side. The parlour fireplace is plastered with a chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel. Alongside the fireplace is an C18 cupboard with shaped shelves. The rear block kitchen fireplace is blocked although its chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel is exposed. The plain crossbeam here is probably a replacement. The roof over the main house is carried on C18 or C19 A-frame trusses but the kitchen block roof is carried on C17 side-pegged jointed cruck trusses.

Listing NGR: ST0677501852