Higher Lodfin

SS 92 SE BAMPTON

6/14 Higher Lodfin -

II

Former farmhouse. Circa early C17 with C20 alterations to the front elevation. Stone rubble, left end wall cob ; asbestos slate roof (formerly thatched) gabled at ends ; right end stack and axial stack with stone shafts. Plan: An unusual C17 plan form for the region : single depth, 3 rooms wide with a lobby entrance against the hall stack rather than the more common 3 room and through or cross passage arrangement. The lower end, to the right, is divided into 2 and may originally have been an unheated service end with the stack possibly added in the C18 ; unheated inner room. Newel stair in turret to rear of hall. C20 fenestration and small single-storey lean-to adjoining front of inner room. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front with 1,2 and 3-light C20 casements with glazing bars ; C20 front door to lobby entrance right of centre ; modern entrance into inner room through C20 lean-to ; additional C20 doorway on right return into lower end. Interior: Good survival of circa early C17 carpentry and joinery including 4 plank and muntin screens : short screens to the lobby entrance, the hall screen with chamfered muntins and a crank-headed doorframe ; the lower end screen plainer and plastered over on the lower end side. Fine plank and muntin screen between inner room and hall with a crank headed doorframe to the inner room, the muntins on the hall side chamfered and stopped at hall bench level. In the lower end room a section of axial plank and muntin screen divides the room into 2. Cross beams in the lower end and hall are deeply-chamfered with step scroll stops; plainer inner room cross beam with exposed joists. Both chimneypieces are probably C20, Dutch tiles to the lower end fireplace. Roofspace not inspected at time of survey 1986 but recorded as probably C18 by Hulland with possible jointed cruck remains partly obscured on the first floor, Hulland suggests an affinity between Higher Lodfin and Chilterne in Morebath (similar plan form). Higher Lodfin was one dwelling to circa 1815 and was sub-divided into 2 farm cottages in the C19 before reverting to a single dwelling in circa 1950. (Hulland).

Hulland, Charles, "Higher Lodfin, Bampton", survey record dated 1977 deposited in West Country Studies Library.

Listing NGR: SS9517923277