Illers Leary Farmhouse Including Shippon Attached At West End

EAST AND WEST BUCKLAND SS 63 SW Illers Leary Farmhouse 2/63 including shippon attached at west end - II

Farmhouse with shippon attached. Probably early C16 origins, remodelled in late C16/early C17 with C19 alterations. Stone rubble and rendered cob. Slate roof with gable ends. Asbestos slate roof to shippon. Brick stack at right gable end and stone rubble front lateral hall stack with tapered cap and projecting bread oven. Original plan obscured by later alterations but possible sequence of development suggests former open hall with original cross-passage to left. There is a blocked doorway from the passage (on each floor) to the formerly lofted shippon at the left end, the latter largely rebuilt in C20 and floor removed. In the late C16 or early C17 a small jettied chamber may have been created over the cross passage. In the C17 the hall was floored and stack built onto-front. At the same time the cross- passage appears to have been resited to the right of the hall, the entire right-hand section apparently being an addition of this date to judge by the solid cob partition rising to the apex of the roof between the hall and this new cross passage. The former cross-passage then became a narrow inner room. The lower right-hand end now largely rebuilt in the C19 with a gable end stack probably inserted at the same time. A blocked front doorway into this room suggests the house at this time may have been in two occupations. The original position of the stairs is uncertain, there being two probably C19 staircases, one to the rear of the later cross-passage leading from the rear right-hand corner of the hall, and one steeper flight of stairs leading from the rear left-hand corner. 2 storeys. 4-window range. C20 2-light casements. Hall window with slate leanto roof built out in line with hall stack. Plank doors to each side, that to right with rectangular overlight, that to left half-glazed. The right-hand window is inserted in blocked doorway to lower end room. Interior: probable jetty beam roughly chamfered to left end of hall, wide chamfered bressumer with run-out stops to right end of hall. The headrail of a plank and muntin screen incorporating the semi-circular arched head of a doorway which probably originally divided the original cross-passage and hall, has been reset axially across the former to create a lobby with access to the shippon to the left and hall to right, but the partition was removed in C20. Single late C16/early C17 clean truss, sited over the right-hand cross-passage, the principals cut off above the morticed and tenoned collar. No direct access to roof-space over hall but it can be seen through a break in the solid cob partition that the timbers are smoke- blackened.

Listing NGR: SS6499730043