West Ford Farmhouse

SX 79 SW 9/20

CHERITON BISHOP West Ford Farmhouse

GV II

Farmhouse, now house. C16 core, C17 improvements and extensions, partly rebuilt and further extended in late C18- early C19, modernised 1984. Plastered cob on rubble footings; granite, cob and brick stacks topped with C19 brick; wheat reed thatched roof. 2-storeys facing south. 4-room plan to main block with stables and hayloft attached to left (west) end. Lobby entrance house with one heated room to left of front door and 2 to right. Projecting service wing with gable-end stack. Kitchen-bakehouse in right end room with massive gable-end stack is isolated from main house by blind cob crosswall. Roof half-hipped to left. Irregular front. Large door and unglazed window to stables on left. Main house to left of service wing has symmetrical 2-window arrangement of C19 3-light casements and central door, and to right doors to kitchen and service block are sheltered behind outshot with corrugated iron roof. It seems likely that early core of the building lies between cob crosswalls and towards eastern end upper part of a smoke-blackened truss remains (presumably C16). Roof otherwise late C18-early C19 in date, and most of layout and features below are contemporary. Kitchen-bakehouse and service wing escaped modernisation; former still cobbled with massive granite fireplace, its oak lintel covered by mantelshelf on shaped brackets, latter with granite fireplace with oak lintel chamfered with scroll stops, spice-cupboard to left with carved oak surround, and small oak 2-light window with chamfered mullions in west wall. Both date from second half of C17. Late C17 ceilings in east end of main room features simple oval panel defined by moulded rib. The late C18-early C19 scheme was apparently never finished as room left of front door was never plastered and its fireplace never used.

Listing NGR: SX7321793783