Cider House And Store At Tuckett'S Farm

Cider house and store at Tuckett's Farm, Haccombe-with-Combe Lower Netherton.

A cider house and store built for pressing and storing cider, with the cider house probably dating to the late 17th century and the store added later. The buildings are constructed from whitewashed plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with a thatched roof that is gabled at the right end and hipped at the left end, featuring a plain ridge.

The cider house faces east and is built into the slope of the orchard with an apple loft above. Access to the loft is at the north end. The building has been extended at the rear with a left outshut. At the south end stands a horse-powered press from the 17th century. The cider store is positioned at right angles to the cider house, facing north. In the angle between the two buildings, the thatch is carried down to form a common porch serving the doors to both structures.

The cider house has two rough slit windows without frames in the cob on the east elevation and double doors with a timber lintel leading to the apple loft at the north end. One of the large doorway jambs and the lintel are chamfered. The rear elevation is partly weatherboarded, with thatch carried down as a catslide to the outshut, which has its own door. The cider store features two 2-light plain timber mullioned windows with internal splays and shutters on the north elevation, and one similar window on the east end.

Inside the cider house are pegged collar rafter roof trusses, considerably repaired, and rough-hewn crossbeams supporting the apple loft. The horse engine, probably of late 17th-century date, has a chamfered timber post and a wheel with timber teeth. A large granite crushing basin for the press remains intact. A later, probably 19th-century, screw press also survives at the south end of the building. The cider store has pegged collar rafter roof trusses. Cider from the press in the cider house was carried under the shelter of the porch to fill barrels in the store.

The buildings are documented in the "Commonplace Book" of John Risdon, dated 1683–89, a relative of the historian Tristram Risdon. Risdon lived in what is now known as Manor Cottages, Netherton, and his records reference cider making at this location. By 1699 he had obtained a life-interest in manor property at Netherton and the right to have apples used for cider pounded there. His written account confirms that the cider pound at Netherton was worked by farm horses and that local farmers brought their apples there to be made into cider, including entries recording specific individuals who used the facility.

This building is starred as part of a remarkable group of vernacular revival and traditional 17th- and 18th-century thatched buildings at Tuckett's Farm.