Coombe Farmhouse

SWIMBRIDGE SS 63 SW 8/162 Coombe Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse, late C15/early C16. Remodelled probably in C17, refenestrated and extended in C19. Rendered stone rubble and cob. Slate roof with gable ends. Tall lateral front hall stack with offsets and drip, heightened in brick. Brick stack at right gable end and to gable end of rear extension. 3 cell, former open hall house plan with stair turret to rear of cross-passage. Stairs now inserted in cross-passage which has been widened by encroaching on inner end of room to right. A further staircase situated in the unheated inner room has also been removed. C19 2 storied right-angled gable-ended kitchen extension added to rear forming overall T-shaped plan. 2 storeys. 3 window range of horned sashes with margin glazing bars. Brick porch with gabled roof and semi-circular arched entrance to 6-panelled inner door. Similar sashes to each side, the hall window pushed out in line with lateral stack under slate lean-to canopy. Tall 2-light window to left end. Slated roof to dairy outshut to rear in right-hand angle of T-shape. Interior: stop-chamfered beam to hall which contains vertical dado matchboarding. Some early joinery survives to chamber at right end. Single raised cruck truss survives over hall with cranked collar morticed into soffits of blades. The blades, however, must have been too short for the span of the building as short extension pieces have had to be scarfed onto the tip of each blade to complete the apex which carried a diagonally threaded ridge purl in, all equally smoke-blackened. The original 2 tiers of threaded purlins supporting 4 thick smoke-blackened rafters extend only as far as the end of the hall. The 2 trusses over inner room and 4 trusses over the cross-passage end are all later replacements. The full sequence of development is not, therefore, recoverable but the slight rise to the first floor level over the hall suggests this was the last section of the house to receive an inserted floor.

Listing NGR: SS6269131369