Upcott Farmhouse

Upcott Farmhouse is a farmhouse probably built in the mid 16th century with major improvements and extensions added throughout the 16th, 17th, 18th and late 19th centuries. The building is constructed mostly of plastered cob on rubble footings, with some late 19th century exposed rubble featuring brick dressings. The chimneys are rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brick. The roof is slate with a small section covered in corrugated iron, though all was formerly thatched.

The house follows a much-altered 3-room-and-through-passage plan facing south-east. A former service room to the left (south-west) is now incorporated into 19th century farm buildings. A 17th century 1-room extension extends from the right (north-east) end. An early 18th century kitchen wing was added at right angles to the rear of the passage and former service room, with a late 19th century wing added at right angles to the rear of the right end room. The house is 2 storeys tall with an irregular 5-window front elevation.

The left end, formerly the service room, shows mostly late 19th century exposed rubble with 2 plain doorways and a small unglazed window between them, plus a loading hatch above the right door. The main house front is plastered with 4 windows, comprising a variety of 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars, including one with margin panes. A late 19th century 6-panel door at the left end leads to the passage, and a 20th century door at the right end serves the extension. The roof is gable-ended to the right and drops down to the left of the passage, where corrugated iron covers the former service room.

The interior reveals a complex structural history. The oldest fabric survives in the roofspace, where a probably mid 16th century roof structure over the passage includes a side-pegged jointed cruck truss. Both this truss and a post set in the hall face of the cob crosswall between hall and inner room are smoke-blackened, indicating the hall and passage area was originally open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. A large mid-late 16th century fireplace was inserted into the hall, constructed of stone rubble with an oak lintel resting on oak pads and a mutilated soffit showing remains of chamfered and pyramid stopped finish. To the left of the chimneybreast is a contemporary beam, possibly a mid-late 16th century bressumer carrying the internal jetty of the passage chamber.

The hall was floored in the early-mid 17th century with 2 crossbeams, both chamfered with keeled lozenge stops. The former inner room contains a mid-late 16th century axial beam chamfered with pyramid stops to the extension and straight cut stops toward the hall. Its fireplace is blocked. The extension room has a mid 17th century plain-chamfered elm crossbeam and a fireplace with its oak lintel soffit-chamfered with bar-runout stops. The contemporary roof above this section comprises A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars.

The early 18th century kitchen wing, though now open to the roof, was 2 storeys within living memory. It features a very large stone rubble fireplace (its lintel now hidden) incorporating a large brick bread oven to the rear and, on either side, doorways to walk-in smoking chambers. The left doorway is blocked, but the right is open and the smoking chamber remains intact. The original roof comprises A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars and X-apexes.

The former service end was rebuilt in the late 19th century, though its rear cob wall is original. It is now part-floored with massive unfinished crossbeams and a late 19th century roof. The house is notable as a multi-phase farmhouse with an unusually large kitchen fireplace complete with oven and smoking chambers.