Forke Farmhouse

Forke Farmhouse

This farmhouse dates from the late 16th century, possibly representing a remodelling of a late medieval house, with some alterations made in the later 17th century and 19th-century fenestration. The building is constructed of colourwashed rendered cob and stone with a slate roof to the front of the ridge and corrugated asbestos to the rear (formerly thatched). The roof is gabled at the ends, with a stone stack at the right end containing stone and brick shafts, a brick-shafted stack at the left end, and a large projecting front lateral stack with a stone shaft.

The plan reflects complex evolution. The present arrangement comprises three rooms and a cross passage (the lower end positioned to the right) with a rear dairy. A front right wing at right angles to the lower end forms a two-storey farmbuilding. The house may have begun as a late medieval open hall, though very limited access to the roofspace prevents this being established with certainty. The left and right ends of the front elevation are slightly set back, indicating some rebuilding in the centre, although ground floor carpentry details throughout are consistent with a late 16th-century date. The carpentry is of high quality; moulded beams in the inner room (to the left) indicate it functioned as a parlour, while the lower end may have been a kitchen with the hall as the principal living room. The lower end partition of the cross passage has been moved to the left; if the partition with the hall remains in its original position, the passage would have been unusually wide. A single-storey outshut with a catslide roof incorporates an external stair leading off the hall and a dairy. Parts of the rear wall at first-floor level are only partition thickness between jointed crucks, a puzzling feature.

The front elevation is asymmetrical with four windows, displaying an attractive set of 19th-century timber casements of one, two, and three lights with small panes. The centre of the range is slightly broken forward. The front door to the cross passage lies to the right of centre. At right angles to the main range at the right end stands a two-storey farm building, gabled to the front with a corrugated iron and asbestos roof. This farmbuilding has external steps up to a loft entrance on the front end, with the roof brought down as a catslide over a lean-to adjoining the left return. The lean-to provides sheltered access to a door into the lower end room of the farmhouse.

Interior

High-quality late 16th-century carpentry survives throughout the range. The hall contains a 20th-century grate to the lateral stack, possibly concealing an earlier fireplace, and a very fine set of deeply hollow-chamfered cross beams with keeled stops, a rare detail in the region. A chamfered step-stopped doorway on the rear wall leads to the stair. The inner room has elaborately moulded crossbeams and a modern grate, possibly concealing an earlier fireplace. The lower end room features fine, very deeply-chamfered cross beams with large roll stops. The left-hand cross beam has mortises for a plank and muntin screen which no longer exists. The fireplace is partly blocked but an early lintel and jambs probably survive.

The two right-hand rooms on the first floor open into one another. The room over the hall has a blocked, probably 19th-century fireplace. Considerable change in floor level exists between the room over the hall and the room over the lower end, which has the higher floor level. The roof is of jointed cruck construction, side-pegged, with first-floor rooms plastered up close to the apex, revealing two tiers of purlins. Straight, probably 19th-century collars have been added to the trusses below the level of the ceiling plaster. Access to the roofspace is very limited but what is visible of the old timbers appears clean (unsoot-blackened) above the lower end room and most of the hall; the truss between hall and inner room is definitely darker than the others, though without closer inspection smoke-blackening cannot be positively established. A new roof has been placed over the old timbers above the hall and lower end and carried down as the outshut roof. Large sections of the first-floor rear wall of the main range between the crucks are thin partitions, some of which are daub and wattle.

Historical Context

According to Margaret C.S. Cruwys, Forke Farm was first documented in the 15th century. In 1510 "Forkeshey" in the Manor Court Roll was held by Thomas Leigh of John Cruwys Esq. for the term of life. "Forkeshayes" was sold away from the Cruwys family between 1836 and 1837 to Andrew Elworthy. Forke farmhouse is a fine vernacular building with high-quality carpentry details which show some similarity to Somerset carpentry.