Rensey Farmhouse

LAPFORD RENSEY LANE SS 70 NW 4/95 Rensey Farmhouse II

Farmhouse. Late C16 early C17 with C17, C18 and C19 alterations. Plastered cob on rubble footings; rubble or cob stacks topped with C20 brick; corrugated asbestos roof (formerly thatch). Altered 3-room-and-cross-passage plan house facing south steep slope and therefore it seems unlikely that there was ever a rear passage door. End stacks to former service and inner rooms and rear corner stack to upper end of hall. 2 storeys. Irregular 3-window front of various late C19 and C20 casements, most with glazing bars. Front passage doorway left of centre to former passage and secondary doorway at right end to former inner room both contain early C20 plank doors. Gable-ended roof. Interior modernised in late C19 but some late C16 early C17 and C17 features show although they are not all easily interpreted. Full height cob crosswalls either end of hall. No lower passage screen to tiny service end room with blocked fireplace. Hall has an intriguing arrangement of early-mid C17 beams, some of which may be in their original positions. Main crossbeam has an unusual mirror-section double-ogee moulding on upper side only; it is chamfered on lower side. From upper end side a small axial beam has a double-ovolo moulding towards front of house and a chamfer to the rear; both sides with step stops. Half beam against rear wall is chamfered with bar-scroll stops. Rear upper end corner has mid-late C17 diagonal corner fireplace built of rubble with plain oak lintel and blocked side oven. Hall is lined with reset sections of C17 oak small-field panelling. Former inner room has C17 axial beam which may have been raised in C19. Fireplace was rebuilt in C19 but original late C16-early C17 oak lintel, soffit-chamfered with step stops, was reused at a higher level than original. On first floor it is said that there used to be a third cob partition over hall crossbeam.. C17 truss over inner room, an A frame truss with pegged lap-jointed collar and C20 roof over hall.

Listing NGR: SS7288709327