Rosamondford Farmhouse

Rosamondford Farmhouse

A farmhouse with origins in the late 15th to early 16th century, substantially rebuilt and improved in the later 16th and 17th centuries, re-roofed in the 18th century, and extended and modernised around 1900.

The original house is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, while the circa 1900 extension is of exposed brick. The building features stone rubble and brick chimney stacks topped with circa 1900 brick and some contemporary chimney pots. The main block is roofed in thatch, with slate covering the outshots.

The original house, facing south, has a three-room-and-through-passage plan with a small unheated inner room at the eastern end. The hall contains a rear lateral stack, and the service end room originally had an end stack, now repositioned as axial and serving back-to-back fireplaces. Around 1900, an extra room was added at this end, and two-storey outshots were constructed along the rear of the original house. These outshots include a kitchen with a slightly higher lean-to roof and a large projecting rear stack behind the inner room, with a rear corner stack serving the outshot behind the service end room. The rear passage doorway was blocked when these outshots were built. The building is now two storeys throughout.

The front elevation displays an irregular arrangement of four windows, comprising 19th and 20th century casements, with only the earliest retaining glazing bars. The left end bay, representing the circa 1900 section, is of red brick with a white brick band at first floor level. The front passage doorway, now roughly central, contains a part-glazed late 19th century four-panel door beneath a 20th century tile-roofed porch extending leftward over a contemporary bay window. A secondary 20th century door at the right end is sheltered by a 20th century tile-roofed conservatory. The roof is continuous with half-hipped ends. The circa 1900 western end features a strip of cross-braced framing under the eaves, with a two-window front below of contemporary casements with glazing bars. On the left side is a contemporary door with two panels below a large glass panel displaying an unusual pattern of curving glazing bars. The contemporary brick porch has a coloured tile floor, a front window with leaded glass, and incorporates a reused 15th century tiny Beerstone lancet with trefoil head in the outer side wall; it has a hipped thatch roof.

The interior contains significant early features. The oldest is a late 15th to early 16th century oak plank-and-muntin screen at the upper end of the hall, notable for its unusually broad muntins chamfered with cut diagonal stops above bench level. The screen includes a large round-headed doorway towards the rear and appears to have originally been a low partition screen in an open hall house. The beam arrangement in the hall suggests that a chamber was added over the inner room in the mid or late 16th century, slightly jettying into the hall. The passage and service end room were apparently rebuilt in the early 17th century, and the hall was floored over at approximately the same time. The hall-passage partition is an oak plank-and-muntin screen with muntins chamfered with scroll stops. Another similar screen is suspected behind the plaster on the lower side of the passage. The axial beam and half beams in the hall, and the crossbeam in the service end room, are soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. Both hall and service room fireplaces are blocked. The first floor contains no exposed early features. The roof was probably raised in the 18th century, as it is carried on a series of A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars and X-apexes of that period, reusing a few smoke-blackened members from the original roof.

Rosamondford has a long structural history. The upper hall screen is remarkable both for its early date and completeness. The earliest documentary reference to the property refers to Laford in 1244.