Lambscombe Farmhouse

Lambscombe Farmhouse

A farmhouse of exceptional historical interest, dating from around 1500 with substantial alterations and enlargements, probably in the early 17th century, and minor modifications from the mid to late 19th century and mid 20th century.

The building displays squared and coursed sandstone to the ground floor with a chamfered plinth to the projecting bay and left-hand end, and rendered cob to the first floor. Later additions are built in stone rubble with rendered surfaces to the sides and rear. The roof is gable-ended with asbestos slate, replacing the original thatch (chimney tops were rebuilt in 20th-century red brick).

The original structure was a three-room and cross-passage plan facing south, built as a late-Medieval open hall house. This consisted of a hall with a projecting square bay to the front, a cross passage, a service room to the left, and an inner room (now the kitchen) to the right. The hall was formerly open to the roof, with rooms divided by low partitions. During the 17th century, major alterations transformed the building: a first floor was inserted, an axial stack was added to the left end of the hall, backing onto the cross passage, and lateral and end stacks were inserted to serve the service room and inner room. The eaves of the original range were probably raised at this time.

A 17th-century addition at the right-hand end includes a second cross passage with a newel staircase in a square rear projection, and a probable former kitchen to the right with its own stack (since truncated). A full-height recess in the front wall forms a porch to the right-hand cross-passage entrance. The projecting bay was probably added or substantially remodelled during the 17th century.

The front is asymmetrically fenestrated with seven first-floor, probably mid 20th-century, two-light wooden casements, three ground-floor probably early to mid 20th-century three-light wooden casements, and a probably early to mid 20th-century two-light ground-floor casement to the right. Ground-floor windows have 20th-century concrete lintels. The projecting gabled bay has a weathered plinth (probably formerly chamfered) with a sub-plinth and small square ground-floor squints on each side. The left-hand cross-passage doorway has a 20th-century half-glazed door accessed by 20th-century slate steps, while the right-hand cross-passage doorway between the first and second windows from the right retains a 19th-century boarded door and 19th-century pegged chamfered frame with broach stops. A projecting semi-circular bread oven projects from the stack at the rear of the present kitchen.

Interior features of considerable significance include the former hall, which contains a 17th-century ovolo-moulded spine beam, a 17th-century open fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and 19th-century surround, and a bench along the right-hand wall running into the bay. The former inner room, now the kitchen, has a slate-flagged floor, a boxed spine beam, a plastered 17th-century chamfered wall beam to the front, and a partly blocked 17th-century fireplace to the rear retaining its wooden lintel. Benches occupy the left-hand and front walls with matchboarded backs. The left-hand ground-floor room (former service room) and cross passage were remodelled in the 19th century with four-panelled doors and other fittings. A staircase at the rear of the passage dates from this period. The left-hand room was divided by a later partition forming a small rear room.

The right-hand (17th-century) cross passage has a slate-flagged floor and contains a 17th-century oak winder staircase in the rear projection. The right-hand ground-floor room, possibly a former kitchen, features a 17th-century chamfered cross beam with stepped run-out stops and a 17th-century open fireplace in the front wall with dressed sandstone jambs and a chamfered wooden lintel with stepped run-out stops. A recess in the wall to the right was possibly formerly a cupboard. This room has been divided by a central later partition, with the rear section now forming a dairy with low slate shelves, gauze-covered windows with wrought-iron bars, and internal shutters.

Substantial remains of the circa 1500 roof structure survive in the roofspace, including smoke-blackened elements. A side-pegged jointed cruck truss is visible between the hall and cross passage (partly embedded in the later hall stack). Evidence suggests a probable former cruck truss between the former inner room and the 17th-century cross passage, though it is not visible in the roofspace (possibly truncated). The Late Medieval roof featured scarf-jointed trenched purlins; only one purlin was noted at survey, now reused in the 17th-century roof construction. A smoke-blackened cob cross wall between the hall and inner room rises into the roofspace, bearing a smoke-blackened post with a V-shaped notch at its end, which formerly carried a diagonally-set ridge-piece (suggesting the absence of a Late Medieval truss at this point).

Most of the original 17th-century roof was replaced, with eaves raised at that time. The 17th-century roof structure comprises pegged trusses with principal rafters and collars, paired purlins, and ridge-pieces. A 20th-century roof structure overlies the earlier work.

Further alterations, probably of the late 19th century, included division of the right-hand end room kitchen to form a rear dairy and division of the left-hand end room (former service room) to form a smaller rear room. A staircase was inserted at the rear of the left-hand cross passage, probably also in the mid to late 19th century. The thatched roof was removed and further raised in the mid 20th century.