Yarner

Yarner is a house with 17th-century origins that underwent substantial remodelling and extension in the 1930s, located in Haccombe-with-Combe Higher Netherton.

The building is constructed of whitewashed rendered cob and stone rubble with a thatched roof, hipped at the left end, half-hipped at the right end, and half-hipped to the wing. It has two projecting front lateral stacks, the left-hand stack now dismantled.

The plan shows complex evolution. The main block is single depth and appears to comprise two different periods, with a thick crosswall running to the apex to the right of the entrance and a much lower floor level to the right. The right-hand end consists of one room, possibly originally two, which retains a 17th-century fireplace. On the first floor is a decorated plaster ceiling dated 1726, though earlier in character, which appears to have originally formed part of a grand first floor chamber spanning the whole storey before later subdivision. The date is surprising given the design of the plasterwork and the provision of such a large first floor room. The left end of the house consists of a 1930s entrance with stair, the entrance hall partition abutting the left-hand lateral stack rather awkwardly. Carpentry details pre-dating the 1930s appear no earlier than the 18th century. A rear left wing, at right angles to the main block, dates from the 1930s.

Externally, the house is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front. The eaves thatch is eyebrowed over the first floor window to the right of the front door, which is 1930s, approximately central with a thatched porch on posts. A second front door at the extreme left provides access to a former larder or backhouse. Small pane 1930s metal frame casements with metal glazing bars are used throughout, along with two round ground floor windows of the same date—one in the disused left-hand stack and another to the right of the front door. Metal frame windows, including French windows matching those on the front, appear on the right return, rear elevation and to the 1930s wing.

Internally, the fireplace in the right-hand room has one moulded red sandstone jamb (right-hand jamb rebuilt) and a chamfered step-stopped lintel, both of 17th-century character. The crossbeams are 1930s, but a set of scratch-moulded joists, about the right width for a passage, survive at the left end of the room, though these may be re-used as other similar re-used joists appear in the room. The room to the left of the porch has closely-spaced crossbeams of slender scantling. 1930s joinery includes the staircase and a number of plank doors.

The plaster ceiling, dated 1726, is particularly intriguing. The date and initials AG and WOAI (the last partly concealed by modern partitions) are rendered in reverse. The single-rib pattern includes two well-preserved heart shapes enriched with floral motifs, some rather rustic. The ceiling is divided into three bays by chamfered plastered-over beams with no surviving cornice. Although an Anthony Gotbed lived in the parish in 1726, there is no evidence he lived at Yarner; born in 1672, it has been suggested that the plasterer may have failed to reverse the moulds for the ceiling and also placed the date numbers in the wrong order.

The roof is much repaired over the right end of the house, but one truss has a lap-dovetailed collar and formerly had threaded purlins and threaded ridge, consistent with a late 17th-century date but possible, if rather archaic, in the early 18th century. The plaster ceiling has been partly re-suspended on timber posts fixed to a tie beam, presumably in the 1930s. The roof structure over the left end of the house is probably 18th or 19th century.

This is an interesting house with a very unusual and rather puzzling ceiling.