Chapple Farmhouse

FREMINGTON SS 43 SE 1/1 Chapple Farmhouse 25.2.65 II Farmhouse. Probably C16 origins, largely remodelled and extended 1663 by datestone. Rendered stone rubble and cob. Slate roof with gable ends. Axial brick stack heating chamber over inner room, brick stack to right (lower) end, stone rubble lateral rear hall stack with tapered cap, heightened in brick, and brick lateral rear stack heating inner room with C19 clay pots, that to right horned with incised foliated decoration. 3-room and through-passage plan with additional room at left end beyond the inner room, probably a C17 addition and may originally have been used for farm storage. C19 gable-ended dairy wing at right angles to rear of lower end forming overall L- shaped plan. 2 storeys. 5-window range. C19/C20 fenestration. 2-light casements to upper storey, 3 with 6 panes per light to right, 3 panes per light to left and C20 window at left end over French windows. Otherwise C19 3-light casements, 6 panes per light to ground floor. 4-panelled door to through-passage doorway, the upper panels glazed. Datestone near to eaves level above R 1663 C. C19 4-light hall casement to rear, 3 panes per light. Interior: a lower end has high fireplace lintel with narrow chamfer and centrally- placed large cloam bread oven to rear of hearth. Beside the fireplace on the left is a former newel staircase replaced in C20 by straight flight of stairs. Behind the stack at first floor level over the bread oven is a narrow bay which may originally have contained a stairway to the former garrets. Chamfered bressumer and 2-cross ceiling beams with hollow step stops to lower end room. Ovolo-moulded straight-headed door surround with scroll-stopped durns between through-passage and lower end. Plank and muntin screen, 7 planks wide, the muntins chamfered and infilled straight-headed doorway between hall/through passage. 4-panelled door to rear of through-passage. The hall ceiling beams and fireplace lintel have been covered over in C20, but an ovolo-moulded door surround with triangular prism over scroll-stopped durns survives between hall and inner room. C17 chamfered door surround to axial partition to inner room, the front passage containing a good C17 staircase with moulded handrail, turned balusters and larger newels with compressed finials. 2 C17 trusses with lap-jointed collars survive over the higher end, otherwise roof structure replaced in C20. The 1663 datestone is set in the band of stone rubble above the original height of cob wall, suggesting that the eaves were heightened and earlier roof structure replaced at the time when the house was remodelled. The house was the home of the Fishley family of potters in the late C19, the chimney pots being a product of their potteries.

Listing NGR: SS4926432096