Middlecott Farmhouse

EAST AND WEST BUCKLAND SS 63 SE 3/20 Middlecott Farmhouse - - II

Farmhouse. Probably late C16, remodelled and extended early to mid C17, with C20 alterations. Stone rubble, rendered to upper storey only. Asbestos slate roof with gable ends. Brick ridge stack. Unusual plan. Original core appears to consist of hall and cross-passage containing staircase, the hall heated by stack at inner end. Beyond the hall, at the upper (right) end is the former dairy with single storey salting house added at right end. The lower end, rebuilt in the C17 consists of a parlour/kitchen wing extending to the rear at right angles to the main range, forming an overall L- shaped plan, with dairy outshut to rear. 2 storeys. 4 window range. C20 fenestration throughout. Interior: parlour/kitchen has 2 cross ceiling beams with wide chamfers and hollow step stops. Fireplace lintel replaced. 3 bread ovens, one to each side, brick- lined, that to centre infilled. Ovolo-moulded scroll-stopped durns to doorway from passage. Rough chamfered beams to hall and chamfered scroll-stopped fireplace lintel. Hollow step-stopped chamfered ceiling beam to former dairy. Chamfered hollow step-stopped durns to doors to chamber over parlour/kitchen and to small room over the stairs, the latter partially cased in. Scroll-stopped chamfered lintels to fireplaces to chambers over hall and parlour/kitchen, the latter with a first floor stack, now demolished, at the front end of the wing. Solid stone rubble walls rising to the apex of the roof divide the 3 roof spaces over the parlour/kitchen, hall and cross-passage, and dairy end. The 3 trusses over the hall have straight principals, trenched purlins and typical C17 lap- jointed collars, but curiously the 2 trusses nearest the stack have Alcock Type F1 apexes with short saddles with mortices for short uprights formerly carrying a diagonally-set ridge, but there is no sign of smoke-blackening. The single principal truss over the dairy end has one C17 principal formerly with a morticed and tenoned collar, altered to a lap-jointed collar. Over the parlour/kitchen one principal truss survives and the feet of a second, formerly with threaded purlins, both set at right angles to the main range.

Listing NGR: SS6734432580