Furzemans

ILSINGTON SOUTH KNIGHTON SX 87 SW 8/129 Furzemans -

• II

House, formerly a farmhouse. Late medieval. Stone rubble and cob covered with roughcast. Slated roofs, C16 or early C17 stone chimneystacks with tall tapered tops projecting from left-hand gable and on centre of ridge; the centre stack has thatch weatherings. In rear wall, to right, a large projecting stone stack with offsets, probably of Cl7; later brick shafts on top. Plan has through-passage with hall and inner room to left, both of them probably with fireplaces by C17. To right a long lower end, possibly original; the section next to the passage was probably a kitchen by C17. 2 storeys. 4-window front, the 2 right hand windows in a slightly lower section to right of the hall stack. Windows have C19 wood casements with glazing bars. Front door, in third bay from left, is C20. Owner says rear doorway formerly had a wooden frame with pointed arch. In rear wall at lower end is a wooden second storey window of late C16 or early C27 with ovlow-moulded mullions. Interior has chamfered half-beam with pyramid stops in through-passage, against the hall stack; chamfered joists with diagonal-cut stops. The back of hall stack is of plain stone rubble. Hall has fireplace with rounded stone corbels carrying a chamfered wood lintel; oven in the back. Ceiling of chamfered upper-floor beams and joists with step-stops; the beams and joists immediately in front of the fireplace are later insertions, possibly filling the gap originally left for the spit mechanism. At the upper end the ceiling stops just short of the wall, against the rounded joist ends of a former internal jetty, indicating that the hall was originally open to the roof. The joists are plain over the inner room, but chamfered with run-out stops over the hall; they now rest on a stone rubble wall, probably replacing an original plank-and-muntin screen. Fragments of such a screen survive at the through-passage end, the remaining stud chamfered with run-out stops. Lower end not inspected. Roof-structure is C19 or C20, but the curved foot of either a cruck or jointed cruck survives in one of the upper-floor rooms, set into the wall. The house was formerly called Hillside. Furzemans is an older name taken from the C19 title deeds.

Listing NGR: SX8098872605