Lower Bridge Farmhouse

The following buildings shall be added to the list:

LAPFORD SS 70 NW 4/305 Lower Bridge Farmhouse GV II

Farmhouse. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. Mostly plastered cob on rubble footing, some plastered stone rubble; stone rubble stacks, one disused, the other with a chimney shaft of C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof with a small rear section replaced with corrugated asbestos. 4-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south with the inner room at the left (west) end. The service end was rearranged in the C19 and may originally have been a large single room. Certainly the original roof extends to the present (eastern) end. It now contains a service room with chamber above and, at the end, a stable with hayloft over. The hall has a projecting front lateral stack and the inner room has a disused end stack. 2 storeys. Irregular overall 5-window front. The 4 to the main house comprise a variety of C19 casements with glazing bars and the hall chamber window (left of the stack) is a C19 horizontal sliding sash with glazing bars. The front passage doorway (right of the stack) contains a C20 door. The stable includes a C19 door with an unglazed window to the left and a loading hatch to the hayloft above. Roof is gable-ended with the eaves dropping a little over the stable. Good interior: the house is little modernised and therefore most early features are hidden behind C19 plaster but those that can be seen are of good quality. There are full height cob crosswalls on the lower side of the passage and at the upper end of the hall. The roof, where it can be seen is original. In the hayloft a truss is fully exposed. It is side-pegged jointed cruck of large scantling with a straight collar and at the apex the principals have a yoke and stop short of meeting to create a notch for a diagonally set ridge (Alcock's apex type L1). The hip cruck survives in the end wall. The hall has a 2-bay roof between the cob crosswalls and although the lower parts of the truss are plastered over it appears to be of identical construction except here the collar is cambered. The whole hall roof, including the common rafters and underside of thatch is heavily sooted indicating the inner end is inaccessible. The service end roof is clean. It is not clear when the inner room or service end were floored; no beams show in the former and the exposed beams in the latter appear to be C19 replacements. Probably in the late C16 a chamber was built over the passage jettying into the lower end of the hall where its bressumer is exposed, very richly moulded with broad step stops. The hall fireplace, also probably late C16, is blocked although its massive size can be appreciated. The hall was probably fully floored in the C17 but the ceiling structure is plastered over. The inner room fireplace is blocked. This is an interesting house with an obvious potential for the discovery of more C16 and C17 features.

Listing NGR: SS7247607901