Redland Farmhouse

SS 61 SW 6/13

ASHREIGNEY Redland Farmhouse

II

House, formerly farmhouse. Circa 1500 with early C17 alterations and late C20 addition. Plastered cob walls. Hipped thatch roof. Large late C20 brick axial stack on rubble base, similar stack at left-hand end. Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan, lower end to the left. Originally open to the roof probably from end to end with central hearth to hall. A partition in the roof suggests that the lower end was floored first but due to the replacement of the lower end timbers and the whitening of the partition to obscure smoke-blackening this cannot be confirmed. The rest of the house was probably floored by the early C17 and a fireplace inserted into the hall backing onto the passage. The gable end fireplace to the lower room is likely to have been a later C17 addition. The small inner room remained unheated and was used most likely for food storage purposes. In the late C20 a wing was added behind the passage and hall. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window front of later C20 2-light small paned casements. C20 plank door to left of centre. Small rubble oven projection on wall in front of both stacks. C20 wing projects from centre of rear elevation. Interior: lower room has chamfered hollow-step stopped ceiling beam. Fireplace has narrow chamfered wooden lintel. The hall fireplace has a hollow chamfered wooden lintel which has been cut off at the right-hand end. The back of the stack, facing onto the passage, is constructed of dressed stone. Remains of cream oven in hall opposite fireplace. The beam beside the hall fireplace, extending to the rear wall has. mortices for a screen. Roof: the original smoke-blackened roof survives over the hall and inner room with 2 trusses of which the hall one is recognizable as a jointed cruck although its front blade has been superceded by the inserted hall stack. The construction of the joint is unusual because where the upright post joins the blade at the elbow, it tapers and is clasped between the forked end of the blade in a form of elongated bird's mouth joint and the only peg visible is one on the side of the post before it actually joins the blade. Morticed collar, diagonal ridge and threaded purlins. The form of the inner room truss is not clearly visible below the roof space. The blackened rafters and thatch also survive. Inserted into the hall truss is a probably secondary partition which has subsequently been whitened, that corresponds to the head-beam for a screen below. The roof over the lower end was replaced probably in the C20 with rough insubstantial rafters.

Listing NGR: SS6345912229