Higher South Coombe Farmhouse And 2 Adjoining Barns

Higher South Coombe Farmhouse and 2 Adjoining Barns

A former farmhouse with two adjoining barns, situated at Higher South Coombe near Templeton. The main house dates from the late medieval period and was remodelled in two phases during the early 17th century, with a kitchen wing added in the late 17th century; further renovations were carried out in the 20th century. The adjoining barn was probably built in the 18th century and was converted to residential use in the late 20th century. The threshing barn dates from the late 18th or early 19th century.

The buildings are constructed of cob and stone rubble. The house and converted barn are colourwashed and plastered. The house has a thatched roof, gabled at the left end and hipped at the right end, with left end and axial stacks; the kitchen wing has an end stack. The converted barn is slated, while the threshing barn has a corrugated iron roof.

The house is T-shaped in plan, with a single-depth main range four rooms wide and a rear kitchen wing. Originally a late medieval open hall, the three left-hand rooms were arranged as three rooms with a cross passage, the lower end to the left. A hall stack was inserted backing onto the passage. An internal jetty at the higher end of the hall indicates that the house was floored in two phases. When the hall was floored it was probably re-used as a kitchen. The lower end room is a mid-17th century parlour with a narrow, unheated inner room beyond. A rear centre kitchen wing was added in the late 17th century with access from the hall. The right-hand room of the main range is a converted outbuilding, probably formerly a dairy. The adjoining barn was converted to accommodation in the late 20th century. The threshing barn at right angles to this has opposed threshing doors.

Externally, the house is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front. The front door serves the passage to the left of centre, with a 20th-century door at the extreme right into the former outbuilding. First floor windows are 2-light 19th-century timber small-pane casements; two similar ground floor windows are present, along with one 1-light window flanked by bee boles. Two pigeon holes are set into the first floor. The adjoining converted barn has a re-used panelled door and one first floor and one ground floor window. The threshing barn has a large doorway with cob cheeks.

The interior survives with good examples of 16th and 17th-century carpentry and joinery. Exposed joists in the cross passage are flanked by a lower end plank and muntin screen and, at the higher end, by a section of possibly medieval plank and muntin screen and the stone rubble rear wall of the stack. The inner room has a deeply chamfered cross beam and an open fireplace with an ovolo-moulded lintel, the fireplace apparently reduced in size. The hall contains two moulded axial beams, a good open fireplace with a hearth window, and a fine screen at the higher end. Above the screen, the inner room jetties into the hall with joists with moulded ends; half the joists have been cut off. A straight stair against the rear wall replaces a former newel stair in the rear left corner. A good chamfered doorframe serves the inner room, which has been subdivided in the late 20th century. The kitchen wing has a chamfered axial beam with run-out stops and an open fireplace with a chamfered lintel, bread oven, and putative curing chamber. One ovolo-moulded doorframe is present on the first floor.

The roof displays the feet of two jointed cruck roof trusses visible upstairs; these are truncated below the joint. The trusses have apparently been cut off in the roofspace, where the timbers are 18th and 19th-century work but include two smoke-blackened re-used late medieval rafters. The interior of the converted barn was not inspected; the single-storey threshing barn has late 18th or early 19th-century roof trusses.