Down Farmhouse

DOLTON SS 5712 14/45 Down Farmhouse II

Farmhouse. Circa 1500 with possibly C16 and early C17 alterations and C17 addition. Plastered cob and rubble walls. Thatch roof gabled to left and rear wing, hipped to right. Projecting rendered rubble lateral stack at front, rendered brick stack at gable end of rear wing. Plan: originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan, lower end to left has been demolished and rebuilt in C19 or early C20 as outbuilding. Hall originally open to the roof with central hearth but due to very limited roof access it is unclear to what extent the house was open to the roof. The evolution of the plan is also therefore difficult to ascertain but a few factors suggest that the first stage of modernisation might have involved the insertion of a chamber over the passage which was jettied into the still open hall which may have had its front lateral stack built at this time. There is a solid wall between the hall and inner room but they are probably contemporary and their flooring was completed by the early C17. In either the early or mid C17 a heated parlour wing was added behind the inner room. Probably in the C20 the partition at the higher side of the passage was removed and its rear doorway was blocked. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front of 2-light C20 small-paned casements to the right of the projecting stack which has a squint in its left-hand side and a C19 plank and part-glazed door to the left. Beyond that is the rebuilt and now single storey lower end. Wing projects behind right-hand end. Interior: just inside front door to left is original doorway to lower room, now blocked, with 2-centred chamfered wooden arch. Sections of a rough wooden screen have been re-used to form an entrance lobby - originally they presumably constituted a screen between hall and passage. The hall fireplace has a corbelled wooden lintel which is chamfered and stopped and rests on a curved wooden corbel. Unchamfered half beam at higher end of hall and similar cross beam towards lower end which marks a drop in the ceiling level and may well be a jetty beam as there is a partition above it. The inner room has chamfered and stopped ceiling beams. In the rear wing is an open fireplace with chamfered and stopped wooden lintel. Roof: the foot of one face-pegged jointed cruck is visible on the 1st floor above the hall. Roof access is very limited but from the hatch at the lower end of the hall it could be seen that the roof is smoke-blackened although constructional features were not visible.

Listing NGR: SS5754912998