Higher Cliston

SAMPFORD COURTENAY SS 60 SW 5/137 Higher Cliston GV II

Farmhouse. Circa late C16 and early-mid C17. Rendered cob walls. Gable ended thatched roof. 3 brick stacks - one at each end and one axial. Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan whose development is not quite so simple as might at first appear. The room to the left of the passage is significantly wider than the rest of the house and rather than being the customary kitchen or service rooms was obviously intended as a high quality parlour. This suggests that this end has been rebuilt. However, the detail of features at the higher end seems to be of a later date than the lower room and this suggests some kind of alternate rebuild. The stairs in a projection at the rear of the hall are probably contemporary although part of the walls and the stairs themselves have been renewed. The inner room presumably was a service room and the hall adopted the function of the kitchen. At a subsequent stage the inner room was divided into 2 and a small larder inserted into the lower room. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front mainly of small-paned C19 1, 2 and 3-light casements. The 2 ground floor windows to the left are C18 square section wooden mullions with leaded panes wide C19 panelled door to left of centre. At rear is rectangular stair projection to left of centre. Interior: Lower room has good-framed ceiling of double hollow and roll moulded beams. Its fireplace has granite jambs and chamfered wooden lintel. Chamfered wooden doorframe to lower room from passage with jewel stops and cranked head. Passage has hollow step-stopped beams. Hall also has framed ceiling but of different form with spine and cornice beams chamfered with bar and step stops. Its fireplace has rounded moulding to both granite jambs and wooden lintel. Similar chamfered wooden doorframes to stairs at rear and inner room, with jewel stops. Roof: one side pegged jointed cruck is visible over the hall, the others are boxed in on the 1st floor. The cruck has threaded purlins, diagonal ridge and mortices for a collar, it is completely clean. Over the lower end is an old truss with lapped pegged collar. Modern truss over higher end. This is a particularly attractive house, very picturesque externally and with some high quality internal features.

Listing NGR: SS6195101957