Minors

SY 09 SE NEWTON POPPLFORD VENN OTTERY AND HARPFORD 4/91 Minors

GV II

House, former farmhouse. Early C16 with major late C16 and C17 improvements, rearranged in C19, modernised and enlarged circa 1980. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings , some C19 brick and extension of C20 concrete blocks; stone rubble and ashlar stack with sandstone ashlar chimney shaft; thatch roof. The main block faces north and is derived from a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house. Since both ends were cut off in the C19 leaving the hall with narrow rooms each end it is presently not possible to identify which end was originally the service end and passage or the inner room. The hall has a large projecting front lateral stack with a secondary oven projection. Rear block of circa 1980 projects at right angles behind the left (eastern) end. It has 2 rooms side by side behind a large entrance hall with the main stair. There is another circa 1980 stair at the left (western) end of the main block. 2 storeys. Irregular 3-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars. The left end window is flanked by sloping buttresses. The hall stack has weathered offsets and a double shaft of ashlar with soffit-moulded coping. Roof is half- hipped to left and gable-ended to right. Similar casements to rear of main block and the extension also has casements with glazing bars and harmonises well with the main block. Interior. The oldest feature exposed is the roof structure. 4-bay roof is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The central hall truss has chamfered arch- bracing with a dimple at the apex giving the impression of an ogee arch. Only the small section of roofspace over the left (eastern) room is exposed and the original timbers are smoke-blackened indicating that the original house was open from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. Both end walls appear to include trusses. None of the low partition screens survive. The trusses each end of the hall were filled with full height oak-framed partitions, probably in the mid C16. Part of the left (eastern) framing is exposed at ground level. At the other end the framing has been dismantled at ground floor level. About the same time the hall fireplace was inserted; its sides are Beerstone ashlar and the oak lintel is soffit-chamfered with step stops. The oven was inserted later and is now blocked. The hall was eventually floored in the C17. It has a 3-bay ceiling carried on soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeams. The hall stack appears to have been adapted to accommodate a now blocked first floor fireplace at this time. The circa 1980 rear block includes some old beams introduced from elsewhere. The size of the hall and its arch-braced open truss indicate that this was a substantial late medieval house.

Listing NGR: SY0777691210