Thornlands Farmhouse

ST 02 SW 1/73

HOCKWORTHY Thornlands Farmhouse

GV II

Farmhouse. Mid C17, possibly earlier origins, C19 dairy extension, the whole place was thoroughly modernised circa 1980. Plastered stone rubble with some cob, extension of exposed stone rubble; stone rubble stacks with plastered chimneyshafts; slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: L-shaped building. The main block faces north-west and has a 3-room plan. At the left end is an unheated room. The centre room, the hall/parlour, has an axial stack backing onto the right end kitchen. At the left end of this room there were opposing doorways (the rear one now blocked) but there is no evidence that there was ever a passage screen here. The kitchen at the right end, has a large gable-end stack. The small 1-room projecting in front of the left room is original. It now contains C20 stairs but is thought to have been the original stair block. At the right end a C19 2-room plan dairy block projects forward at right angles. Circa 1980 a corridor was built across the front between the stairblock and dairy. The C17 farmhouse appears to be of a single build. House is 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 1:2:1-window front of circa 1980 casements with diamond patterns of leaded glass. The present front doorway is in the centre of the corridor outshot. It dates from circa 1980 and has a porch of that date. The main roof and dairy roof are gable-ended. Similar rear fenestration and the left end includes a bay window of circa 1980, and the whole of this end wall was rebuilt at this time. Interior: the 1980 modernisation was thorough but left most of the features, including the flag floor of the kitchen and most of the oak lintels over the windows. The unheated left end room has a plain soffit-chamfered crossbeam. The hall crossbeams are soffit-chamfered with reversed ogee-scroll stops. The fireplace here has a replacement oak lintel. The kitchen has a large fireplace with a curving soffit-chamfered oak lintel and the housing of the oven intrudes into the room. The alcove to right might have been a walk-in curing chamber. The roof was not inspected although scantling of the bases of the straight principals suggest that there are C17 A-frame trusses.

Listing NGR: ST0309720967