Buckinghams Leary Farmhouse

EAST AND WEST BUCKLAND SS 62 NE 5/57 Buckinghams Leary Farmhouse - II

Farmhouse. Early C16 with possibly earlier origins, probably extended in late C16 and remodelled in early C17 and extended to rear in C18, with cottage addition at right end in 1858. Earlier range stone rubble and cob. Thatch roof with brick stack at left gable end and front lateral hall stack largely rebuilt in brick. Half-hipped thatch roof to rear C18 extension. 1858 addition of stone rubble with slate roof and brick stack at right end. Plan: Earlier range consists of former open hall to right heated by front lateral stack with stair turret to rear and possibly incporporating a former through-passage at its right end, the front doorway having been blocked and a window inserted. Entrance now to large room to left of hall, probably a C17 addition containing an internal winder staircase to the rear wall, and also extended slightly at the left end presumably when the gable end stack was inserted in C19. To the rear left end of hall is a short 2 storey C18 right angled extension with access by secondary flight of stairs incorporated in hall stair turret. 1858 cottage extension at right end with separate entrance and single principal ground floor room, but with internal access from main range. Dairy outshut to rear left end. 2 storeys. Earlier range has 4 windows range, 2-light casements. 2-light casements to left of porch with lean-to roof. Three 3-light casements to right, the whole front wall having been built out in line to the left of the hall stack. 1858 addition has two 2-light casements 3 panes per light above gabled slate roof to porch with small 1858 datestone and plank door. 16 paned sash to right with roughly dressed stone voussoirs. Interior: Wide chamfered axial ceiling beams to left hand room of earlier range. 2 ovolo-moulded cross ceiling beams to hall with thinner hollow-step stopped chamfered bressumer at left end and similar beam of lighter scantling, chamfered on the lower side axis only, towards right-hand end which may demarcate a former hall/through- passage partition. Massive cob walls rising to apex of roof at each end of hall. Raised cruck truss with cambered collar visible over the hall, closed, the upper floor partition retaining a C17 chamfered door surround with scroll-stopped durns. No access to this part of roofspace, but the cruck feet are set so low in the walls as to leave little doubt that this part was formerly open to the roof. The original roof structure survives largely intact over the left-hand room, with no evidence of smoke-blackening.

Listing NGR: SS6573829850