Upcott

Upcott is a farmhouse dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, or possibly earlier, with a 19th-century rear addition. The building represents a fragment of what was probably a larger structure, possibly the parlour wing of a once more substantial mansion.

The main range is constructed of stone, whitewashed and rendered, with a bitumen-painted slate roof that is gabled at the ends. A porch with a similar hipped roof projects from the front. A rendered chimney stack is positioned at the left gable end, with a rear right lateral stack serving the main range.

The present plan comprises a single-depth main range that is two rooms wide. The principal room occupies the right side and is heated from the rear lateral stack. It is divided from a smaller heated room at the lower end by a wide passage containing a stair. The plan suggests the present structure is incomplete, with a stub of a crosswing wall visible at the left end.

The principal room appears to be a complete early 16th-century chamber, though the fine mullioned windows on the right gable end are an unusual feature and may have been repositioned. Eight roof trusses of an upper chamber, also probably early 16th-century, survive. The porch is likely a late 17th-century addition, and the original entrance to the range probably led into the passage containing a circa late 17th-century stair. A service room in a lean-to at the rear of the lower end may be an 18th-century addition. In the 19th century, a rear right wing was added to provide additional accommodation.

The building is two storeys high with an asymmetrical four-window front and regular fenestration. A two-storey porch with a hipped roof projects centrally. To the right of the porch are one first-floor and one ground-floor four-light mullioned granite windows, each with moulded mullions and architraves. Ground and first-floor granite mullioned windows on the right return of the main range are similar but retain king mullions and stanchions. The remainder of the front elevation features two-light casements from the 19th and 20th centuries with glazing bars.

The interior contains numerous features of high quality. The principal room has two chamfered stopped cross beams and a fireplace with hollow-chamfered jambs and a hollow-chamfered segmental head. The gable end hall window contains a circa early 16th-century stained glass heraldic shield. The inner porch door leading directly into the principal room is probably late 17th-century with cover strips. The door between the main room and the passage is an unusual late 17th or early 18th-century board and batten door forming two panels between wide styles. The passage contains a circa late 17th or early 18th-century dog-leg stair with bobbin-turned balusters, some of which were replaced in the 19th century.

The lower end room has a fireplace with a low chamfered stopped lintel. The jambs appear to have been rebuilt but retain traces of scratch mouldings. On the rear wall of the lower end room is a high-quality early 18th-century china cupboard without doors, featuring a round head and timber keystone detail set into the wall. The cupboard partly blocks an extremely unusual five-light window visible only from the rear lean-to. This window consists of five narrow slit lights all cut from a single slab of stone, and its function was likely for ventilation rather than lighting. Above this window on the first floor is an equally notable four-light window with four small trefoil-headed lights cut from a single stone slab. The lights are flush on the inner face but recessed on the outer face with chamfered mullions. The inner face contains various holes with stubs of wooden pegs, presumably for shutters. This window may date from the 15th or 16th century, or possibly earlier.

Eight closely-spaced roof trusses are of high-quality carpentry, probably 16th-century, with chamfered principal rafters and cambered collars that are mortised into the principals. The principal rafters are mortised at the apex with a diagonally-set ridge and there are two tiers of trenched chamfered stopped purlins. Some early 18th-century two-panel doors survive on the first floor.

Upcott represents an important survival of part of a high-status early 16th-century house with some unusual stone and joinery details.