Lower Hill Farmhouse And Adjoining Stable

MOLLAND SOUTH DOWN LANE SS 72 NE 14/92 Lower Hill Farmhouse and adjoining - stable II Farmhouse and stable. Circa 1500-1550 with mid - C17 alterations. Minor C18 and late C19 alterations and additions. Mid - C20 refenestration and reroofing. Coursed stone rubble with some cob in front wall to left and right, and stable with rubble ground floor and cob first floor (unrendered at time of survey - 20 July 1987). Gable-ended corrugated-asbestos roofs (formerly thatched). Rendered stacks. Plan and development: Three-room and cross-passage plan, formerly open to the roof along its whole length. Consisting of central hall, with former cross passage and service room to left (south-west) and inner room to right (north-east). C17 remodelling including, insertion of first floor, insertion of lateral stack to rear of hall (possibly pre-dating the floor), and the inner room probably enlarged and external end stack added at upper end. Lean-to dairy added at rear of upper room, probably in the C18 and stable added at lower end (south-west) probably at the same time. Dividing wall between cross passage and hall removed, probably in the C19, and entrance blocked. New entrance created between hall and upper room, probably at the same time, and staircase inserted too, rising up from the door. Probably C17 winder staircase in projection at rear of lower room. Two storeys. Exterior: Asymmetrical 4-window front; C20 two- and 3-light wooden casements. Third ground-floor window from left has segmental stone-arched head. C20 half-glazed door between first and second windows from right. Second window from left formerly cross- passage doorway (see straight joists below). C20 half-glazed door to far left. Stable adjoining to left with boarded left door to right, ground-floor boarded door to right with old strap hinges and boarded hatch to left, also with old hinges. Lean-to to left with pair of garage doors. Interior of house: C17 scratch-moulded cambered cross beam and joists in hall; reused chamfered cross beam (on edge) inserted to replace former wall/screen between cross passage and hall. Blocked fireplace in rear wall and cupboards in wall opposite former cross passage doorway, possibly inserted in opening of former rear doorway. Hall window with jambs continuing down to floor level. Right-hand ground-floor room has chamfered spine beam and blocked fireplace with unchamfered wooden lintel. Old wooden winder staircase at rear of left-hand room. Cob walls between service room and former cross passage and between hall and inserted staircase continue up into the roofspace unblackened. Substantial remains of smoke-blacked later-Medieval roof with 2 (probably jointed) cruck trusses (at upper and lower ends of hall, trenched purlins and diagonally-set ridge-piece. C20 roof construction above this. Interior of stable with cobbled floor and wooden stalls.

Listing NGR: SS7961427690