Morrels Farmhouse

ST 01 NW 4/70

HOCKWORTHY

Morrels Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. C16 origins with later C16 and C17 improvements including a major late C17 - early C18 renovation and rearrangement. Stone rubble with sections of plastered cob; stone rubble stacks topped with plastered brick; concrete tile roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: 4-room plan house facing south-east and built across the hillslope. At the left (south-west) end is the kitchen and left of centre the former hall or dining room. An axial stack between serves back-to-back fireplaces. A C19 stair was built up the upper end of the hall (opposite the fireplace). and a C19 doorway inserted in front. Right of centre is the parlour with a rear lateral stack. A fourth unheated room at the right (north-east) end. Besides the doorway into the hall there are others into the right and left end rooms. The present plan is essentially that of the late C17 - early C18 renovation. However the core is earlier. The hall and parlour derive from an earlier house, probably a C16 3-room- and-through-passage plan. The original house was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room parlour was floored over in the late C16 - early C17 probably with the fireplace there. The hall fireplace was inserted about the same time. The hall was floored over in the early or mid C17. In the late C17 - early C18 the passage and service end was rebuilt as the kitchen with a new stack inserted backing onto the hall stack. At the same time the fourth room was added at the right end. House is now 2 storeys. Exterior: irregular 5-window front of C20 casements without glazing bars, the latest ones of PVC. All 3 doors are C20 behind contemporary porches. Roof is gable-ended. Interior: the hall/dining room has a large stone rubble fireplace (relined in the C20) with soffit-chamfered oak lintel. There are 2 crossbeams here but only one is exposed; it is soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. The half beam across the chimneybreast has been cut off short of the front wall and is supported by a shaped oak bracket (probably late C17 - early C18). A corresponding one was put the other side circa 1980. The partition between hall and parlour includes the remains of an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The parlour has a 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling with broad hollow chamfers. The fireplace here is blocked. One original truss remains. It is probably some kind of jointed cruck but only the top is exposed. It is smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. The rest is late C17 - early C18 and has plain carpentry detail. The kitchen fireplace is blocked. The right end of the roof is late C17 - early C18 A-frame trusses. The rest has been replaced in the C20.

Listing NGR: ST0126619240