Francis Court Farmhouse

SX 99 NE BROADCLYST

5/11 Francis Court Farmhouse -

• II

Farmhouse. C15 core, with major re-modellings in late C16/early C17 and C19. Cob and volcanic trap mix, rendered, under dry slate gabled-end roof. Originally a 3- room through-passage plan, with a fragment of a smoke-blackened roof surviving. Now L-shaped, with addition of parlour wing to rear of left-hand end. Internal end stacks, and a lateral front stack just below roof-ridge line (but formerly an axial stack before late C19 re-roofing) backing on to former passage. External end stack to parlour wing. 2 storeys throughout. Front: Scattered fenestration; three 2-light windows above, lintels at wall-plate level; C19 panelled door to passage, under tiled and boarded porch; one 2-light and one 3-light window to left, one 3-light window to right of passage entrance. All timber casements with 6 panes per light. Lean-to and another front entrance with C19 panelled door to extreme right-hand end. Clear evidence to rear (before present plaster applied) of C19 heightening. Opposed rear cross-passage door; C20 French windows to wing. Interior: Kitchen at lower end to right of passage with 2 beams, both chamfered with hollow step stops; former end fireplace partially dismantled. Hall fireplace with chamfered stone jambs and 2 recesses in rear wall and a course of vertical slates; 1 axial beam, chamfered unstopped. Parlour wing with a good ceiling of circa 1600: 1 large cross beam with composite moulding of ovolo and cavetto, and 12 subordinate axial beams to each side, with double-concave mouldings, stopped. Roof: lower end completely C19. Fragments of a medieval roof survive in the form of a hip cruck at the left hand end, and (now resting on inserted axial stack) one blade and side-pegged yoke of a smoke-blackened principal, possibly a jointed cruck. The C19 roof continues over the entire length of house. C19 water hand pump under right-hand front porch.

Listing NGR: SX9770099489