Widhayes Farmhouse Including Garden Wall Adjoining To East

Widhayes Farmhouse, Uplowman

A farmhouse of late 16th to early 17th century origin, thoroughly refurbished around 1880 with some modernisation circa 1980. The building forms part of an important group with a gatehouse, stables, barn and linhay.

The front block is constructed of red sandstone rubble with some ashlar dressings; the remainder is plastered stone rubble, possibly with cob. Stone rubble stacks support plastered brick chimney shafts. The roof is slate, though it was probably originally thatched before circa 1980. The house stands two storeys throughout.

The plan is basically L-shaped. The main south-facing block is double depth with three rooms on the front. The centre room contains a rear lateral stack, and the left (west) room has a gable-end stack. Between these, a cross-passage connects the front door to a large stair behind the centre room. At the right (east) end is a double depth dairy. Behind the left front room, the rear block projects at right angles back towards the road. This includes another passage to the stairwell and a corridor running along its east side, passing an unheated small office, a dining room with an axial stack, and a kitchen with a gable-end stack. A low service block containing woodsheds and similar structures encloses a service courtyard on the north side.

The symmetry of the two-window front is disrupted by a small third floor window near the right end. All windows are circa 1980 aluminium-framed windows without glazing bars; ground floor windows have low segmental arches above them, whilst main first floor windows are half dormers. The central doorway contains a 19th century six-panel door behind a 20th century gabled porch. A projecting string course runs across most of the front at first floor sill level. The roof is gable-ended with shaped kneelers and coping. The west side of the rear block has a regular three-window front, mostly 20th century aluminium or iron-framed casements without glazing bars, though two 19th century timber casements with rectangular leaded glass panes survive.

The interior is wholly the result of circa 1880 renovation, with all joinery and detail dating from that period. However, in the west room of the front block, an earlier stone rubble fireplace with a replacement oak lintel has been exposed. The roof above this section is late 16th to early 17th century, comprising a common rafter roof with arch-braced A-frames, possibly built to provide a coved plaster ceiling. The roof of the rear block is not accessible. More early features likely survive behind 19th century plaster, though the thoroughness of the 1880 refurbishment means the house must be regarded as largely Victorian in character.

A large garden to the east of the house is separated from the road by a tall plastered cob and stone rubble wall with corrugated iron coping, extending from the service block eastwards.

The farmhouse is documented by a good set of farm papers in the farmer's possession dating back to the 17th century.