Old Farmhouse

SO 51 SE COLEFORD HIGH MEADOW

4/9 Old Farmhouse

GV II*

Gatehouse range with lodging, later farmhouse, presently storage. Late C15, remodelled mid C16, altered and embellished early/mid C17, extended to north west c.1830. Stone, roof tiled to south west side, corrugated iron to north east, rebuilt brick stacks. Rectangular single depth range of two storeys. Scattered fenestration, basically 7 windows, some blocked, two C15 ones with trefoil stone tracery, mullions and hoodmoulds; others in C16 frames, some C19. The original range had a central thoroughway with C15 arched heads blocked in during the C17 with a Tudor arched doorway on one side. Above is a balcony on 4 large corbel brackets the outer faces carved with scroll ornament. Several plain later square-headed doorways, probably C19. Three ridge stacks, the gable end one projecting from the first floor up. Interior has evidence of an original high status lodging at first floor level. The SE room was heated by a plain fireplace in the gable wall, its projecting stack carried on a corbel. it was open to the roof, whose central truss was arch-braced to the collar, with stub ties from the braces to the wall plates (both braces and collar are now missing). This is a late development from base cruck forms, generally of C15 (but not later) date. There is a blocked doorway in the SW wall, which must have led to a stair or link to another building, probably of timber since it was not bonded into the main building. This was replaced, probably in the C16, by a masonry block, the lower part of which survives under a modern roof. The adjacent chamber is one bay wide, formed by close-studded partitions and closed collar beam trusses with V-struts. It has a square-headed fireplace with ogee, quarter-circle and ovolo mouldings and swept stops which looks later C15; built into the wall of a modern outbuilding is the quatrefoil frieze of a larger fire- place of much the same date. The interior of the gatehouse to the NW of the passage seems to have been substantially reconstructed around 1630-40 when a masonry cross wall and diagonal chimney breast were inserted. The ceiling of the first floor chambers also probably belongs to this phase, when reused C16 windows were inserted in the SE gable (presumably from demolitions elsewhere), and a 3-light oak ovolo-moulded window inserted high in the NW gable. Probably in the later C18, and certainly before the house was extended, the upper part of the SW wall was rebuilt NW of the archway. An important building with features of interest from several periods, it is a survivor of High Meadow a great house of C15 date of which this was the gatehouse range. It was retained when a new High Meadows was built in c.1640 and again when that was demolished in 1805.

Listing NGR: SO5595810476