Kerscott Farmhouse

Kerscott Farmhouse

A farmhouse, now private dwelling, located at Swimbridge. The building probably dates to the early 16th century and was remodelled in the late 16th century, with further extension in the 17th century. It underwent restoration in the 1970s.

The exterior is constructed of partially rendered stone rubble and cob with an asbestos slate roof, hipped at the right end. A tall rendered lateral hall stack stands to the front, with two stacks to the rear—that on the left side is rendered, while that on the right side is truncated. The building comprises two storeys in a five-window range. A horned sash window with 4 over 8 panes is located at the left end of the shippon, with sash windows of 3 over 6 panes above 12-paned sashes on the left side of the new range. A 2-light timber mullion window appears at the right gable end, though otherwise the fenestration is of 20th-century date. A 17th-century doorway to the through-passage features a slate canopy, chamfered door surround, and an old 3-plank door with cover strips.

The original structure was a 3-room formerly open hall house, remodelled in the 17th century when a rear gable-ended extension was added at right angles and a shippon was probably added at the left end, set back slightly from the main range. The through-passage partition on the right side was removed. In the 20th century, the dairy outshut in the angle of the rear extension was largely rebuilt to form a twin gable-ended extension to the rear, and the shippon was converted to form part of the dwelling.

Interior features are particularly fine. The parlour, an inner room below the hall, contains a scroll-stopped ovolo-moulded fireplace lintel with dado panelling on two sides of the room, 2 panels high with raised and fielded panels. It boasts an ornamental early 17th-century plasterwork ceiling with enriched geometrical ribwork featuring a running vine pattern and fleur-de-lis sprays to the outer tips in the form of an overall cross-shape with radiating squares in the angles.

The hall itself has a scroll-stopped ovolo-moulded fireplace lintel. A chamfered beam with large scroll stops and a chamfered bressumer sits at the through-passage end, with some probably reset 17th-century dado panelling, 2 panels high, along the wall. Chamfered and scroll-stopped doorposts flank the through-passage doorway, which retains an old 3-plank door. A 17th-century ovolo-moulded door surround with scroll-stopped doorposts opens to the rear of the hall.

The room to the right of the through-passage contains roughly chamfered beams and a reset section of plank and muntin screen belonging to inserted stairs, 4 planks wide with chamfered muntins. Three of the planks feature triple pierced lights with pointed heads.

The right-hand extension to the rear contains a 17th-century straight-headed doorway with chamfered and scroll-stopped doorposts and a chamfered and scroll-stopped fireplace lintel.

The staircase features thick turned balusters and a moulded handrail with a thick turned newel to the bottom of the flight topped with an acorn finial. A balustrade at the head of the stairs has balusters raised on a plinth with square-section newels bearing moulded caps.

The principal chamber possesses a scroll-stopped ovolo-moulded fireplace lintel and a fine late 16th-century ornamental plaster ceiling. This ceiling displays single ribs radiating as 8 petals from a foliated centre, encircled by a string with alternating fleur-de-lis and spray motifs to the tips. Plasterwork moulded cornicing runs along all four walls, featuring an interlocking '5' frieze. The ceiling is suspended from a collar rafter roof structure, unique to this chamber, comprising 10 rafter couples with side-pegged collars and ties.

The roof structure throughout includes a raised cruck truss over the through-passage with a collar tenoned into soffit mortices to the blades and single trenches to each blade. Two roughly hewn pegged trusses sit over the upper end, whilst single 17th-century trusses span the rear right-hand extension and shippon end with lap-jointed collars. The truss over the shippon retains two tiers of trenched purlins, a ridge purlin, and common rafters.