Idenhill Farmhouse

Idenhill Farmhouse

Farmhouse of early-to-mid 16th-century date with major improvements made in the later 16th and 17th centuries. The building was rescued from dereliction and thoroughly renovated around 1980. It is constructed of plastered stone rubble with some cob, has stone rubble chimney stacks topped with 20th-century brick, and is roofed in thatch. The house is 2 storeys.

Plan and Development

The building follows an L-plan, with the main block facing into a courtyard to the west. Originally it comprised a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. At the north end is a service end kitchen with a gable-end stack. To the right of the passage stands the former hall, heated by an axial stack that backs onto the passage. The former inner room at the south end is terraced into the hillslope. By 1980 both the hall and inner room section had collapsed and were rebuilt as a single room, making detailed analysis of the early development impossible. A 2-room service block projects at right angles in front of the kitchen at the left end, with the outer room containing a rear lateral stack.

The house probably began as some form of open hall house, heated originally by an open hearth fire. The hall stack was likely inserted in the mid or late 16th century. The service end was refurbished as a kitchen in the early or mid 17th century, at which time the first room of the service block—probably a dairy or pantry—was also added. A second room in the service wing was probably added in the 19th century. The two service wing rooms were united around 1980.

Exterior

The front elevation has an irregular 2-window arrangement of circa 1980 casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway is a circa 1980 Tudor arch with a contemporary door. Windows and doorways around the rest of the house are similar to those on the front, except for a tiny 17th-century oak-framed window serving the former kitchen smoking chamber, which remains sooted. The main block roof is gable-ended to the right and half-hipped to the left; the service block roof is gable-ended.

Interior

The hall fireplace is of Beerstone ashlar with a chamfered oak lintel. The face has been hacked back, regrettably obscuring what remains of 17th-century paintwork on the unaffected parts. All other 16th or 17th-century features have been lost from the hall and inner room section. Along the lower side of the passage runs an oak plank-and-muntin screen.

The service end kitchen contains a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel, a rear oven, and the remains of a walk-in curing chamber to the right. The crossbeam here is chamfered with scroll stops. In the chamber above are the remains of a 17th-century ornamental plaster plaque depicting a St Andrews cross with different motifs at the end of each arm. The roof is carried on a side-pegged jointed cruck truss.

A late 16th-to-early 17th-century oak Tudor arch connects the kitchen to the service wing, where the first room features a chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam.