Great Burridge Farmhouse

CHAWLEIGH SS 71 SW 2/18 Great Burridge Farmhouse

G.V II Farmhouse. C16, much rebuilt in C17, rearranged in C19. Front is plastered rubble, rest exposed cob with inserted rubble footings and some C19 work of exposed stone rubble with brick dressings; thatch roof with some slate replacement. C19 modernisation obscures original layout although it is derived from a 3-room- and-through-passage plan facing south. The through passage has been removed but was probably to right (east) of hall and service end room was until circa 1970 in agricultural use and was unheated. Hall has front lateral stack and inner room has rear projecting lateral stack. Dairy block at right angles to rear of hall, Granary and store added in C19 on left (west) end the same width as main house but under a roof at right angles. Both stairs are C20. 2 storeys. Irregular 5-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars. The main door, a C19 part-glazed plank door with contemporary monopitch and slate-roofed porch is left of centre and inserted into former inner room. At right end is a C20 glazed door and window alongside is blocking a former doorway. Over the right service end the eaves of the roof step down and lift over the right end first floor window. Roof is gable-ended to right. At left end the gable end of the granary is hidden by a C20 farm building. On the left end an external flight of stone steps lead to first floor. The gable-ended dairy block has its western side wall rebuilt in rubble with brick dressings. Interior: the inner room now contains the main stair and entrance lobby. It contains a late C16-early C17 crossbeam soffit-chamfered with step stops. The large fireplace is built of rubble with a plain, possibly replacement, oak lintel. The hall has a lower end internal jetty over the passage partition. The headbeam of a plank-and-muntin screen is exposed on the passage side and has a scratch- moulded cornice and Roman numeral carpenter's assembly marks. The bressumer of the jetty is fluted with 4 convex moulds and must be late C16-early C17. The hall was floored in the C17 with a double ovolo moulded and bar-runout stopped crossbeam. The fireplace is blocked and the original may have been demolished. The service end room has 2 crossbeams of large scantling with unstopped soffit chamfers. All the internal partitions are timber framed and clad with plaster. The roof space is inaccessible but the feet of the principal rafters show. They are large and neatly squared suggesting that the roof is C17 and intact. The open truss over the hall rests on vertical posts set into the wall and mortised, tenoned and pegged into the principals - a kind of devolved jointed cruck. The dairy is late C16-early C17 and includes a soffit-chamfered and step stopped crossbeam.

Listing NGR: SS7490012017