Copphall Farmhouse And Adjoining Shippon

Copphall Farmhouse and adjoining shippon form a complex of vernacular agricultural buildings now converted to holiday accommodation. The farmhouse dates from the early to mid-17th century, possibly incorporating earlier fabric, with a late 19th-century addition and probable mid-20th-century alterations. The adjoining shippon dates from the 18th century and has undergone mid-20th-century alterations.

Structure and Materials

The farmhouse is built of stone rubble, cement-rendered to the front and possibly covering cob elsewhere. It has a gable-ended corrugated-asbestos roof. The shippon is constructed of coursed stone rubble with a gable end rebuilt in concrete block (possibly a former cob wall) and a low band of cob remaining below the eaves. It is roofed with corrugated iron and has gable ends. Both buildings have rendered end and lateral stacks.

Plan and Development

The 17th or early 18th-century core follows a 3-room and through-passage plan facing south, with ground falling away to the left. The arrangement consists of a hall with central integral lateral stack to the front, an upper room to the right with an external end stack, and a through passage to the left of the hall. A service room (now kitchen) at a lower level sits to the left of the through passage with its own integral end stack. A staircase projection projects from the rear of the upper end of the hall. If the house was formerly an open hall, the stack and stair turret would likely be contemporary with 17th-century flooring. A winder staircase in the through passage to the left of the entrance is probably a 17th-century insertion, assuming the house pre-dates that period.

A 19th-century wing extends at the rear of the through passage and lower end of the hall, incorporating a dairy on the ground floor. A 19th-century lean-to outshut was added in the angle between the rear wing and adjoining shippon. The front door was inserted into the front of the lower room at an unknown date. Early 20th-century alterations include refenestration and the raising of eaves over the cross passage, hall, and upper room. The front of the hall section has possibly been rebuilt in the 20th century, evidenced by a recessed section with flanking buttresses.

An L-plan shippon was added in the late 20th century.

Exterior

The two-storey facade presents an asymmetrical 4-window front with probable mid-20th-century wooden cross windows. The through passage has an old nail-studded 17th-century boarded door with glazed panel and pegged frame. The kitchen door is similarly old, nail-studded with a pegged frame. A late 20th-century lean-to glazed porch stands in front of both doors.

The front wall of the hall section shows a recessed treatment with flanking pilaster buttress, possibly indicating mid-20th-century partial rebuilding, marked by a small stack. An old full-height raking buttress supports the lower end. The left-hand gable end features a projecting bread oven, and a lean-to stair projection extends to the rear.

Interior

The hall contains chamfered spine beams and half beams. Two doorways connect the hall to the through passage: the forward doorway dates to the 18th century with four raised and fielded panels, whilst the rear doorway is blocked. An old boarded door at the rear of the through passage retains old strap hinges. The old winder stair lies to the left of the entrance in the through passage.

A 17th-century chamfered cranked-arched doorway with pegged frame separates the through passage from the kitchen (lower room). The kitchen contains a deep-chamfered spine beam and boxed half beams, a blocked large fireplace, and an old boarded door to the rear with strap hinges.

The upper room features a cased cross beam and half beam, with a depressed-arched niche in the left-hand wall. The rear dairy contains low slate shelves. First-floor rooms have old boarded doors, with the central first-floor room retaining an old boarded door with strap hinges.

The roofspace was inaccessible at the time of survey in July 1987. Old roof timbers apparently survive beneath the 20th-century covering and appear to comprise four trusses, evidenced by the bases of straight principal rafters visible in the first-floor rooms.

Shippon Interior

The shippon has a 2-leaf boarded door to the left of the house with an open loft above. A return range extends to the left with a late 20th-century metal loft window in the gable end. The right-hand side has a slatted window and boarded door to the left.

The interior contains a 17th-century carved beam reused as a ceiling beam face-down, possibly a former wall plate or bressumer. The beam features a carved Green Man at its centre with vine trails extending from the mouth along the length of the beam. It has a cavetto-moulded lower edge with carved fleurons and a chamfered upper edge with carved dogtooth ornament. A continuous groove runs along the lower face, and two rectangular mortices appear on the upper face. Eighteenth-century collar trusses support the roof.