Knaphole

Knaphole, Moretonhampstead, Doccombe

House, formerly a farmhouse, dating from the early 16th century with 17th-century extensions. The building is constructed of rendered granite rubble with three granite block chimney stacks: one axial stack and two gable stacks, all with dripmoulds and granite capping stones. The left-hand gable stack projects with offsets, and a brick shaft has been built in front of the axial stack. The roof is gable-ended, with asbestos slate covering the left-hand side and corrugated iron on the right-hand side.

The house is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front and two doorways positioned left and right of centre. Windows are a mix of early to mid-20th-century metal frame casements with leaded panes and some early 20th-century wooden casements with glazing bars. The left-hand doorway, which leads to the passage, has a wide 19th-century plank door with a glazed light beneath an early 20th-century gabled concrete porch featuring an arched doorway and window either side. The right-hand doorway is very narrow, probably a later insertion, with an early 20th-century plank door. A shippon is attached to the right-hand gable end, built of granite rubble with a corrugated iron roof and four regularly placed doorways along its front. At the left-hand gable end, behind the projecting stack, is a stair projection, with another stair projection roughly at the centre of the rear elevation, which contains a small window.

The interior plan comprises four rooms with a through-cross passage, probably extended in the 17th century, though the point of extension is unclear due to rising land at the rear and the absence of a back door to the passage. A screens passage has a heated room to the upper left side with a newel staircase beside the gable fireplace, and a fairly small room at the lower right side of the passage with a fireplace at the inner right end and a newel staircase at the rear of the stack. Beyond this is a further similarly sized unheated room, followed by a lower room to the right, probably the kitchen, with a gable end fireplace and newel staircase adjoining it. The house was converted into two cottages probably in the 19th century before being returned to a single house in the 20th century.

The interior is exceptionally well-preserved. The passage features plank and muntin screens either side, with chamfered muntins and worn straight-cut stops. The heated upper left-hand room contains two cross beams with chamfer and hollow step stops, of which one is very heavy and the other less substantial. Its fireplace is blocked. A wooden newel staircase with an original wooden doorframe having a cambered, chamfered head stands to the right of the fireplace. The head beam on the screen to this side is chamfered. The room to the lower side of the screen has a central cross beam chamfered with plain run-out stops, and a simply moulded head beam is visible. Its fireplace is blocked but a plastered beam appears above it with a jewelled post at its left-hand end, moulded at the top. A wooden newel staircase with renewed treads occupies a projection at the rear of the room. The room at the lower side of this contains a central cross beam with chamfer and bar and hollow step stop, while a similar half-beam is set into the back of the fireplace of the adjoining room. The lower end room has a central cross beam with chamfer and hollow step stops and a very wide fireplace with a wooden lintel that is chamfered with hollow step stops. The fireplace has two ovens: one at the back with a stone arched opening and stone lining, and one to the right which is brick. A stone newel staircase stands to the right of the fireplace. On the first floor, in the room above that to the right of the passage, the base of a truss is visible in the form of a rudimentary jointed cruck with a post simply lapped and pegged to the principal rafter. This element is smoke-blackened and features a threaded ridge and purlins.

The house exhibits an unusual plan form with a very well-preserved interior containing numerous original features, with further elements likely concealed.