Upcott Farmhouse

The farmhouse probably dates to the mid-16th century, with remodelling occurring in the early 17th century and an extension constructed around 1700. More recent alterations were made in the 20th century. It is built of rendered cob and stone, with a thatched roof featuring gable ends. A slate roof covers the rear service wing. The building has undergone multiple phases of development. Originally an open hall house with a 3-room and through-passage plan, the lower end was demolished in the early 20th century, and a partition was installed across the through-passage to create a lobby entry, blocking the original rear doorway. A second entrance exists into the former inner room. Around 1700, this room appears to have been abandoned as a parlour, with a new parlour added to its left and a two-storey, gable-ended service wing constructed at the rear. The front elevation has a 4-window range with mainly 2-light casements featuring 6 panes per light, although these are 20th-century additions. There is a 20th-century Doric porch to the inner room entrance, and a 20th-century door to the former through-passage on the right-hand side.

Inside, a chamfered surround is present around a 4-centred arched doorway that once linked the hall and through-passage. A plank and muntin screen originally extended to the right, but was removed; a concealed section remains uncovered from the original construction. The hall features a chamfered cross beam and a hollow step-stopped fireplace lintel, while the former inner room has a boxed-in beam. Four-panelled doors lead from this room to the hall and the added parlour, which retains a section of moulded plasterwork cornice on its gable end wall. An old ledged, 3-plank door connects the kitchen/dairy to the rear service wing. The roof structure is of particular interest, incorporating two probably 18th-century trusses with roughly hewn principals and side-pegged collars. Above the hall and inner room are two 16th-century raised cruck trusses with two tiers of trenched purlins and a ridge purlin, with mortised and tenoned cranked collars. The truss over the hall, including the purlins and underside of the thatch, is significantly smoke-blackened; the cob partition wall rising to the roof apex between the hall and inner room is smoke-blackened only on the hall side, while the truss and roof members over the inner room are clean, suggesting the farmhouse’s early construction involved an open hall with a ceiled inner room. The hall was probably floored over in the 17th century, and the front wall was extended outwards a metre from the original line during that period.