Ford Farmhouse

SS 61 SE 1/14

CHAWLEIGH Ford Farmhouse

GV II

Farmhouse. Mid C17 with mid C19 kitchen extension. Plastered cob on rubble footings; stone rubble stacks with C19 brick chimney shafts; thatch roof. 2-room plan house facing south with central entrance hall and rear stair. The right (eastern) room has large projecting end stack and left (western) room has projecting rear lateral stack. Single storey kitchen block at right angles to rear of right room with outer lateral stack. Small dairy or store room block attached to right end. 2-storey front porch. 2 storeys. Main front has balanced but not symmetrical 2:1:2 window front. The original arrangement survives nearly intact on the first floor. The windows have oak frames and flat-faced mullions and upper transoms all with shallow internal ogee mouldings. Each end are 3-light windows. Right of the porch is a 2-light window and similar 2-light windows to porch and left of porch have been replaced by C19 casements. All the ground floor windows are C19 and C20 casements although that to left of doorway is largely original, missing only the mullion. The central doorway is C19 but the 2-storey porch is C17. The first floor room with its hipped roof is supported on heavy turned oak posts (boxed in at the bottom). Across the whole front the plain oak wall plate shows and the roof is gable-ended. To the right the low dairy/store room is slightly recessed with a front mounting block, a C20 casement and roof is gable-ended. Kitchen block is also gable-ended with large C20 casement in end wall. Both rear chimney shafts are tall. Interior is largely original. The right ground floor room crossbeam soffit is ovolo-moulded with scroll stops. The large fireplace is blocked. Alongside to the right is a blocked window still with its original oak 2-light frame. There is a small contemporary cupboard below with its panelled doors hung on butterfly hinges and the window embrasure is converted to a cupboard with its panelled doors on C18 H-hinges. A large cupboard in the thickness of the rear wall has panelled doors on both butterfly and H-hinges. In the left room no carpentry is exposed and the fireplace is blocked. On the first floor probably original fireplaces are blocked. Original roof of A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The kitchen block has a large blocked fireplace and roof of C19 king post trusses. Possibly the kitchen is a C19 rebuild of the original and the fireplace may be C17. Ford is a well-preserved farmhouse of modest proportions with an exceedingly picturesque elevation which is enhanced by the group of adjoining and nearby farmbuildings (q.v.).

Listing NGR: SS6821812292