Prowse Farmhouse

Prowse Farmhouse is a manor house, now operating as a farmhouse, of exceptional architectural and historical importance. Probably dating from the late 15th century, it was significantly improved and extended during the 16th century. The building is constructed of plastered cob and rubble with volcanic stone chimney stacks topped with 20th-century brick. The roof is wheat reed thatched, though the rear service wing has been re-roofed in slate.

The house originally comprised a 3-room-and-through-passage structure facing south, with a service room at the west end. During the 16th century, a rear wing was added at right angles to the rear of the service room, and the inner room was rebuilt as a crosswing projecting to both front and back. The front projection of this crosswing collapsed around 1920 and was subsequently rebuilt flush with the main front elevation, without its original gable end. The building features end stacks projecting from the service room and service wing, and a large projecting lateral stack to the rear of the hall.

The front elevation presents an irregularly-spaced façade of six windows, comprising 20th-century casements with 20th-century doors positioned at the right end and to the passage left of centre. The passage door is set within a 20th-century round-headed arch. The rear elevation preserves earlier features of considerable interest, including a late 15th- to early 16th-century round-headed oak doorframe to the rear of the through passage. This frame retains its original studded oak plank door with plain strap hinges. Above the door is a late 17th- to early 18th-century casement with flat-faced mullions, vertical iron glazing bars and rectangular panes of largely original leaded glass. The inner side of the service wing includes a first-floor window with a mid-to-late 16th-century 3-light oak frame featuring elaborately-moulded mullions. The inner side of the east wing contains a mid-to-late 16th-century oak doorframe with a segmental head.

The interior preserves exceptional carpentry of the highest quality from the late 15th and 16th centuries. The earliest structural elements are the four roof bays at the west end, which feature late 15th-century trusses of possibly jointed cruck construction, though evidence of the jointing is now plastered over. These trusses employ an early type of apex with a saddle piece set over the ends of the principal rafters and carrying a square-set ridge (Alcock's Type C). The trusses feature cambered collars and arch bracing with carved bosses at the apex, remarkably similar to those at nearby Bremridge Farmhouse. The trusses carry two sets of butt purlins and single sets of windbraces. This structural timberwork is completely smoke-blackened, indicating that the original house was partitioned into sections and heated by an open hearth fire.

The house underwent significant transformation in the 16th century with the rebuilding of the inner room as a crosswing, the addition of the service wing, the insertion of chimney stacks and the flooring of the main block. The early-to-mid 16th-century crosswing contains the remains of a 4-bay roof of side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with single sets of windbracing. The central truss was originally closed by a large-framed partition. The front room, now reduced in length following the collapse of the front projection circa 1920, is reported to have been a chapel. The rear room is connected to the main block by a flat-arched oak doorway and its roof was damaged by a hipped end. The ground floor of the crosswing shows evidence of a central framed crosswall. The chamfered beams on each side feature runout stops and rest on posts with jowled heads against the hall.

The through passage has a pitched stone floor and is divided from the hall by an elaborately-moulded mid-16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen, its frieze enriched with square floral motifs. The passage roof features an 8-panel intersecting beam ceiling with richly-moulded beams, sets of moulded joists at right angles to those in neighbouring panels, and carved oak bosses including a Tudor rose and a heraldic achievement. Both the screen and ceiling have survived unstained. The hall features a 15-panel intersecting beam ceiling with similar but not identical mouldings to the beams in the passage, unmoulded sets of joists at right angles to those in neighbouring panels (mostly now plastered over), and no bosses. The hall is now subdivided, and the 16th-century fireplace has been rebuilt and reduced in size, though it retains the original Beer stone jambs. A cob crosswall divides the passage from the service end. The service room and rear wing have plain chamfered crossbeams. The service room fireplace is blocked. The stack to the rear wing was added probably in the 18th century and blocks the attic gable window. The wing contains a mid-to-late 16th-century 3-bay roof of oak A-frame trusses with cambered collars mortice-and-tenoned to the principals. The eastern two bays of the main block were rebuilt in the 17th century. Other early features probably remain hidden throughout the building.

Prowse is a house of considerable architectural interest and historical importance. The manor is also known as Higher Dodderidge and is recorded as the house of Walter Prou in 1330.