Quarhouse Farm

Quarhouse Farm is a house with an attached stable range, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries respectively.

Materials

The buildings are constructed of local limestone rubble with limestone dressings. The main range is roofed with Cotswold stone slates, while the additional range has a clay Roman tile roof. Cast-iron rainwater heads and downpipes serve the buildings.

Plan and Layout

The main house is almost square on plan, with a gabled central cross-wing and a small dairy at the south-western end. A long range, incorporating part of the earlier house, adjoins at the north-eastern end and projects south-eastwards. The alignment of this range kinks slightly where the later stables addition joins the domestic range. Lean-to porches are attached along the south front of the house and at the north end of the wing. Outbuildings are arranged loosely around a yard to the south and east of the house, though these are not included in the listing.

Main House Exterior

The mid-17th-century house is built of limestone rubble with large, roughly-squared limestone quoins. The windows are stone, of two lights, with diamond mullions under hood moulds. The elevation facing the farmyard comprises a wide single bay with a tall central gable to the attic storey. Both ground and first floors have two windows under a continuous hood mould, with a further similar window set in the gable. A tall ashlar ridge stack rises from the south gable end, with a moulded cap and later pot. The roofs are steeply pitched.

A later stone-built lean-to porch runs across the front of the range, with mid-20th-century glazing and a roof covered in corrugated plastic sheeting. The floor is laid with large stone flags, and there is a plank door at the western end. A door within the lean-to gives access into the attached range at its northern end. At the southern end of the main range, a single-bay, single-storey dairy with a steeply-pitched roof is attached, accessed through a plank door.

The rear of the house presents a wide single bay with a central gable matching the front elevation. The ground floor has two deep mullioned and transomed windows under a continuous hood mould. The extent of this hood mould indicates that these windows were altered historically, probably replacing three smaller windows similar to those elsewhere in the building. The first floor has a single window to the right, and the attic has a single window in the gable. The roofs are covered in Cotswold stone slates laid in diminishing courses.

Attached Range Exterior

Attached to the left and set slightly back from the main range is the western end of the attached range, which is lower than the main range with a roof featuring swept eaves. This range is of two storeys, with the attic of the domestic range wholly contained within the roof space. It has a small lean-to porch at ground floor level with a part-glazed door and mid-20th-century glazing, its roof covered in corrugated plastic sheeting. To the right is a small, later window lighting the winder stair, and above it another similar window lighting the stair between first and attic storeys. A small stone stack rises from the apex of the gable.

The inner elevation facing the farmyard is in two sections. The wide bay closest to the house has three-light diamond-mullioned windows at ground and first floors, with the ground floor window under a hood mould and the one above set under the eaves. Two small roof lights are set in the slope above. A tall ashlar ridge stack rises roughly centrally along the range.

To its right, on a slightly different alignment and built into the bank at the rear, is a two-bay stable range. This has two stable doors under stone lintels at ground floor level, with two-light stone-mullioned windows above. To the right on the first floor is a row of built-in dove holes. The south-east gable end has a small timber casement window set high in the gable under a timber lintel.

The rear elevation, partially set into the bank, has two casement windows at ground floor right serving the domestic accommodation. The first floor has one window, with evidence of a second having been closed. To the left, where the land rises, there are two plank taking-in doors at first floor level with stone thresholds level with the risen ground. The roof over both the earlier domestic range and the additional stable range is continuous and covered in clay Roman tiles.

Interior of Main House and Domestic Wing

The interiors of the main house and the domestic end of the wing all have steeply-chamfered ceiling beams with stops. Those in the main range feature elaborate curved step stops with a bold diamond-shaped, moulded button detail, while those in the wing have slightly plainer curved step stops. The ceilings are otherwise plastered. All doorcases are wide and pegged; those on the ground and first floors of the main range have flat-moulded architraves. Doors to the stairs are plank and batten, while the remainder are generally four- or six-panelled. Fireplaces and other interior joinery date largely from the mid-19th century. Window openings are deeply splayed.

The ground floor of the main range is a single large room with exposed beams, a mid-19th-century timber fireplace with the mantel shelf carried on heavy scrolled brackets and a semi-circular arched grate, and six-panelled doors to cupboards on either side of the fireplace. This adjoins the kitchen at the northern end of the wing, which has later 20th-century fittings. The room includes the winder stair to the first floor, behind a plank and batten door.

The adjacent room in the wing is fitted as a mid-19th-century parlour with a fireplace matching that in the other ground floor room. The room has simple fielded panelling to dado height, and the deep window seat is panelled in wide matchboard. A small hall behind the main entrance door is formed from the northern part of the room, separated from it by a timber-panelled partition that incorporates and matches the door to the room. A cupboard occupying the void to the right of the chimney breast has earlier, probably 18th-century, joinery, with the door set in the centre of a section of raised and fielded panelling with a moulded surround.

The winder stair rises to the first floor, emerging on a landing with a lightweight partition to a bathroom in the northern end of the wing. Beyond this, within the wing, is a single further room with a deep recess alongside the chimney breast. In the main range, the single room has a cupboard to the left of the chimney breast with a 19th-century plank and batten door.

The winder stair continues to the attic storey; its bottom tread has a moulding probably of the 18th century. The main range has a single room in the attic with exposed roof structure, including chamfered purlins. The room has a wide, 17th-century door of three broad planks with highly-decorative, 17th-century strap hinges with scrolling ends. The roof structure in the adjoining end of the wing has been modified to accommodate the upward extension of the stair, which has a small newel post at its top.

From the landing, there is access to the last attic room in the wing, which is unimproved. It has broad floorboards, and the exposed roof structure includes a truss formed from tie beams and paired principals, with collar and two rows of threaded purlins, some of which have been replaced. A surviving purlin is chamfered. The room is ceiled with lath and plaster, and limewash indicates it was previously used for food storage.

Stables Interior

The stables extension of the range has two separate looseboxes on the ground floor and a single, open hayloft above, presently used as a workshop. The ground-floor ceiling has large, exposed, chamfered beams and joists, several roughly-hewn, with wide floorboards above. The interiors have been limewashed. The floor is laid with stone flags in one unit, the other with a later floor.