Outer Marsh Farmhouse

CLYST HYDON ST 00 SW 2/5 Outer Marsh Farmhouse 11.1.88 - II

Farmhouse. Early-mid C16 with major later C16-early C17 improvements, refurbished in the late C19-early C20 and modernised circa 1970. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; brick and stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof, now (1987) under tarpaulins. Plan and development: U-plan farmhouse facing east. The main block has a 3-room- and-through-passage plan. At the right (north) end is a small unheated inner room, probably a dairy or buttery. Next to it is the hall with a rear lateral stack. At the left end is a lower end parlour. In fact the parlour projects a little to rear. It is the front room of a crosswing. It has an axial stack backing onto a service room at the back end. A kitchen block projects at right angles to rear of the right end and it overlaps behind the hall. Its stack backs onto the hall stack. The front block is the historic core of the house. The original roof over the hall and inner room shows that the original house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions and was heated by an open hearth fire. The subsequent development of this part is difficult to determine since most of the structural evidence is hidden. The lower end was rebuilt as the parlour crosswing in the mid C17. The hall was floored about the same time or a little later. The kitchen wing might also be C17 but the fireplace looks C19. The hall fireplace was rebuilt at the same time. House is 2 storeys. Exterior: the windows around the house are all C20 and most have glazing bars. The front is buttressed and has an irregular 3-window front. The passage front doorway is left of centre behind a late C19-cearly C20 plank door and contemporary porch. The roof is half-hipped to right and hipped to left. Interior shows largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisation. For instance no carpentry detail is exposed in the dairy/buttery, kitchen or parlour service room. Also the hall fireplace is rebuilt with brick. The chamfered axial crossbeam though is probably C17. The parlour crossbeam is ogee-moulded with bar scroll stops. The fireplace lintel has a similar finish but the fireplace is lined with C20 brick. The roofs of the main block and parlour crosswing are both carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses but they are not contemporary. The main block roof over the hall and inner room is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth. The parlour crosswing roof was built in the C17.

Listing NGR: ST0476301398