Oak Farmhouse

COLDRIDGE SS 60 NE 1/13 - Oak Farmhouse II

Farmhouse. Early or mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. Modernised in late C19. Plastered cob on rubble footings; stone rubble or cob stacks topped with C20 brick; circa 1960, slate roof (formerly thatch). The plan is derived from a 3-room-and-through-passage layout facing south with the inner room at the left (west) end. In the late C16-early C17 the service end was rebuilt as a crosswing projecting to rear comprising a kitchen with a narrow stone in front and larder the secondary stair to rear. Kitchen has axial stack at the front end. Hall has large axial stack backing onto the through-passage and the inner room has a slightly projecting rear lateral stack. 2 storeys. 4 window front. The right end has a C19 unglazed larger window and above is a C20 window without glazing bars. The rest are horned late C19 sashes, tripartite on the ground floor with central 4-pane sashes, and first floor margin-pane sashes. C19 plank door to front of passage with C20 monopitch slate-roofed hood. Roof is gable-ended to left and hipped to right. Rear block is also gable ended. To rear of the main block the inner room is blind but the hall has 2 C18 flat-faced mullion windows containing rectangular panes of leaded glass, a small 2-light window and taller 3-light window. Service crosswing includes various C19 casements. Interior is well preserved. there are cob crosswalls at the upper end of the hall and lower side of the passage. There are 2 similar late C16 early C17 oak doorways off the lower side of the passage; one to the kitchen, the others to the narrow front store. Both have chamfered surrounds with battered step or scroll stops. In the hall the fireplace is blocked by a C20 grate but its large size can be discerned. It may well be late C16-early C17 and associated with a lower end jetty for the passage chamber. The hall was originally open to the roof. It was floored in the mid C17 and is carried on a crossbeam which has broad soffit-chamfers with fine and unusual bar-flat pyramid stops. there are 3 cupboards around the room with C18 and C19 panelled doors. That in the front wall has a round head. At the upper end of the hall is an oak bench with C17 panelled wainscotting along the back. Above the hall is a 2 bay roof carried on a side-pegged jointed cruck truss but here the roof is inaccessible therefore the question of smoke-blackening remains open. The inner room end appears to be a C17 rebuilt. The fireplace is blocked by a C20 grate and the crossbeam is plastered over.

Listing NGR: SS6799605862