Shapcombe Farmhouse

LUPPITT ST 10 SE 10/60 Shapcombe Farmhouse - - II Farmhouse. Mid - late C16, rearranged in the early C17, C19 service wing, modernised in the C19 and C20. Plastered local stone and flint rubble, maybe with some cob; stone rubble stacks, 2 topped with C20 brick but the parlour has a stone rubble chimneyshaft with Beerstone quoins; slate roof with crested ridge tiles, formerly thatch. Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-east and built across the hillslope although the ground also slopes a little from right to left. The right (north-eastern) room is the parlour, and has a gable-end stack with a projecting oven housing. It is separated from the kitchen by the passage and this kitchen has an axial stack backing onto a small unheated room (the former dairy or buttery) at the left end. A 1-room plan C19 service block projects at right angles to rear of the right end and this was brought into domestic use in the C20 when a gable-end stack was built there. The main block does not have the usual late medieval 3-room-and-through-passage plan. The present layout appears to be the result of a major early C17 rearrangement of the house. Since then the house has been turned round; that is to say it seems that the present parlour was built as a kitchen and the present kitchen was formerly the parlour. The roof is mid-late C16 in date but any other evidence of the pre-early C17 house has been either plastered over or has been removed. The house is 2 storeys with secondary outshots on the left end. Exterior: the main house has an irregular 4-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars, some of them iron-framed. The passage front doorway is just right of centre and contains a part-glazed plank door behind a C20 gabled porch. There is a secondary doorway at the left end behind a C20 conservatory. The roof is gable- ended. Interior is largely the result of C19 and C20 and it seems likely that much of the early fabric is hidden behind later plaster. In the kitchen (the former parlour) there is a plain chamfered crossbeam and the fireplace is blocked although its size is apparent and it is known to have an oak lintel. The parlour (former kitchen) also has a plain chamfered crossbeam but the large fireplace here is exposed; it is plastered stone with a chamfered oak lintel and includes a large C19 oven. The roof between the stacks is 3 bays and carried on 2 boxed in arch-braced trusses which are clean. The rear block has plain C19 carpentry detail.

Listing NGR: ST1525904586