North Bulcombe Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating back to the early 16th century, it was remodelled and extended in the late 16th century. The farmhouse is constructed of stone rubble and cob, with colourwashed and rendered surfaces. It has bitumen-painted slate roofs, gabled at the ends, with an axial stack to the main range, and a projecting end stack with set-offs to the rear wing. The original layout comprised a three-room main range with a through passage, the lower end, initially on the right, likely always being two storeys high. The hall and inner room were originally open to their roof timbers, the inner room probably being floored first, followed by the hall, which then received a central axial stack backing onto the through passage. A rear kitchen wing, set at a right angle to the main range, was likely built at the same time as the hall was floored. A single-storey lean-to at the rear of the main range is probably an 18th or 19th century addition. The partition dividing the through passage and lower end no longer exists, and both the lower end and inner room have been subdivided into two rooms. The front facade is asymmetrical with two window bays. Steps lead to the front door of the through passage, located to the right of centre, with a buttress to the left of the door. The windows are 20th-century casements, with three on the ground floor and two on the first floor. The interior exhibits high-status 16th-century carpentry, including a richly-moulded late 16th-century intersecting beamed ceiling in the hall, and a good plank and muntin screen with run-out stops to the higher end. A blocked fireplace remains, with its original lintel intact; a doorframe with a cranked head leads into a curing chamber adjacent to the stack. Several similar doorframes are found on both the ground and first floors. The inner room and the right end of the lower end room have deeply chamfered crossbeams, while the kitchen wing features a hollow-chamfered step-stopped crossbeam. The kitchen wing also contains a blocked fireplace, possibly concealing earlier features. The roof structure has jointed cruck-side pegged roof-trusses in both the main range and the rear wing. The feet of the crucks are truncated in the lower end, except for one, and the collars are missing. Above the hall and inner room, three trusses remain, with evidence of sooting; one is a complete jointed cruck truss including the collar, while the other two are incomplete. This is a well-preserved example of an evolved late medieval house, sharing characteristics with traditional Somerset farmhouses.