Court

Farmhouse, now private dwelling at Chittlehampton. Probably early 16th century, remodelled in the late 16th century and again in the early 17th century, with probable late 17th-century extension. The building is constructed of rendered stone rubble and cob above first-floor level, with a thatched roof with gable ends. It has a tall front lateral hall stack with tapered cap and drip, a rendered stack to the left gable end, and a demolished stack at the right gable end.

The plan is a 3-room and cross-passage arrangement with no rear outshuts, showing clear multiphase development. The building originally appears to have been a 2-room and cross-passage open hall house, probably with low-screen partitions. The roof is heavily smoke-blackened from the lower (left) gable end to a thick hall/inner room cob partition which rises to the apex of the roof. The lower end was ceiled first, jettied into the hall, with the jetty beam directly below the closed hall truss. The partition is smoke-blackened on the hall side only. A secondary closed partition, clean on both sides, divides the lower side of the through-passage and is unrelated to the lower end truss. The hall proper was ceiled probably in the late 16th or early 17th century, when a staircase was probably added at the lower end of the hall, running from front to back beside the hall/passage screen. This staircase was subsequently removed in the 20th century; the only remaining staircase is a 19th-century insertion in the front right corner of the lower end. The inner room at the right end appears to be an addition of the late 17th century and was occupied within living memory as a separate cottage. The lower end gable wall was largely rebuilt in the late 19th century; a short length of front wall continuing to the left of the stack suggests the lower end may originally have extended further to the left.

The building is 2 storeys high with a 4-window range. Early 20th-century fenestration consists of 3-light casements with 3 panes per light. The ground floor has late 20th-century fenestration: a 2-light casement with 12 panes per light to the left of a 20th-century 2-leaf door to the cross-passage, and 20th-century windows to the hall and inner room, all with timber lintels.

Interior features include a lower end fireplace with bread oven, which has a chamfered lintel with straight cut stops. The screen to the lower side of the passage has a chamfered headrail. A plank and muntin screen to the hall side of the passage is known to survive but is entirely concealed by 20th-century work. The hall fireplace was partially rebuilt in the 20th century but retains its timber lintel. A large chamfered cross ceiling beam to the lower end of the hall has an axial ceiling beam morticed into it. A chamfered half beam is present to the rear wall. The similarity of the stops on all beams—all keel stops—suggests the original jetty beam may have been replaced when the hall ceiling was inserted, possibly because of the unusual positioning of the hall staircase on its lower side. The inner room has a chamfered scroll-stopped fireplace lintel. There are blocked doorways to the rear wall on both floors.

The roof structure is accessible only over the hall and lower end. It contains 2 raised cruck trusses with morticed and tenoned cranked collars, 2 tiers of butt purlins and a threaded ridge purlin, and an additional purlin trenched into the elbow of the crucks forming a kind of wall plate on the rear side only. All roof members, including batten rafters and the underside of thatch to the front side, are heavily smoke-blackened. A closed stud and clay jamb partition over the lower side of the cross-passage is clean on both sides; a closed partition to the hall truss is smoke-blackened on the hall side only.

Court was the ancient court-house of the manor. In the 18th century it was occupied by the steward of the Rolle family.