West Horridge Farmhouse

West Horridge Farmhouse

A farmhouse dating from the late 16th or early 17th century, with rear wings possibly added in the 18th or early 19th century. The building is constructed of granite rubble, now painted at the front.

The main roof is locally made wheatreed thatch with a hip at the left-hand end of the front range. The left-hand section, which has been reduced in height, has a low-pitched slated roof with clay ridge tiles. The thatched section has slated valleys, now concealed by later thatch. Two late 17th or 18th century granite chimneys with caps formed by projecting slate courses rise from the thatched range – one in the right-hand gable and one on the ridge close to the left-hand end. The slated section has a tall, late 19th century red brick stack with bands of yellow brick on the centre of the ridge.

The house follows a three-room and through-passage plan. The lower room, which is heated, has a former stable or outhouse beyond it and may originally have been part of a long shippon, later subdivided to form a kitchen. A rear wing at the right-hand end is partly ruined and roofless, with no chimneys; part of it was used latterly as a dairy. Behind the left-hand end is a smaller wing, probably a storeroom.

The building is two storeys high, except for the single-storey left-hand end and the rear section of the wing. The front elevation contains five windows, including two ground storey windows in the single-storey section. All windows are 18th or early 19th century wood casements under plain wood lintels. In the thatched section of the front range, windows have slender moulded mullions with horizontal iron tie-bars for glazing, except the middle ground storey window which has wooden glazing bars and eight panes per light. The doorway in the left-hand bay retains an old plank door with a small window cut into it. The lower left-hand section has a three-light wood casement window to the right with eight panes per light, immediately below which is a blocked doorway matched by a similar blocked doorway in the rear wall. To the left is a single-light wood casement without glazing bars. The front and back walls of the thatched section project slightly at the gable end, clearly showing that the whole building was formerly two-storied. Three slit windows appear in the left-hand gable.

The interior retains much of its 18th and early 19th century character, with irregular plaster surfaces to walls and ceilings. The front door opens into a through-passage which has been enlarged to accommodate an 18th or 19th century plain staircase. A stone rubble chimney of the hall backs onto it to the right. The hall has an ovolo moulded upper floor beam with raised run-out stops, and a similar half beam against the chimney, cut off at the rear end. The partition at the upper end, next to the former parlour (now the kitchen), is a stud-and-panel screen which appears to have formed the base of a close-studded timber-framed wall rising the full height of the house to the roof ridge. Towards the hall the studs are chamfered without stops, and the head beam is lightly moulded; studs are plain on the parlour side. The former parlour is large for a farmhouse of this period and has a fireplace in the gable wall, with a rough longitudinal upper floor beam.

The roof of the front range appears to have been rebuilt at the left-hand end in the 18th or 19th century, but at the right-hand end an original truss survives. This truss has plain feet, a cambered collar, two tiers of threaded purlins and a threaded ridge, with principal rafters notched at the apex. The top of the partition between hall and parlour survives in the roof space, featuring close studding above a straight collar with studs grooved on the sides for laths. On the underside of the collar and principals are mortices for former studs running down to the second storey. There is no trace of smoke-blackening. The right-hand rear wing has 18th or early 19th century trusses with collars pegged to the faces of the principal rafters. 18th or early 19th century plank doors appear in both storeys, one in the second storey with a wooden latch.

This has been a house of high quality and is likely to contain other features of interest concealed under plaster, particularly fireplaces and floor joists.