Neadon Farm

Neadon Farm is a former farmhouse of late medieval origins, substantially remodelled in the late 16th or early 17th century, with a 20th-century rear addition. It is located at Bridford, Neadon Lane.

The building is constructed of whitewashed rendered cob and stone with a thatched roof, gabled at the right end and half-hipped at the left end. Two axial stacks with granite shafts rise from the structure.

The house has an unusual plan form reflecting its complex evolution. It originated as a late medieval open hall that ran open from end to end. The late 16th or early 17th-century remodelling floored the house and introduced the two axial stacks, creating a 3-room and through-passage layout with the lower end to the left. The plan is unconventional: the lower room stack backs on to the passage, while the two upper end rooms are heated from back-to-back fireplaces in an axial stack. Until the late 20th century, the right-hand room was accessible from the exterior only and may have functioned as a separate single-cell dwelling adjoining a two-room and through-passage house. It is likely that the left end room was originally the hall and that the lower and higher ends have since been reversed. A flat-roofed single-storey rear extension in the 20th-century style was added to the rear.

The exterior is two storeys, with an asymmetrical four-window front. The eaves thatch is eyebrowed over two first-floor windows. A 20th-century gabled porch occupies the front, serving the through-passage to the left of centre. The windows are 20th-century timber casements with glazing bars. The left return features a four-light first-floor window of 17th-century timber with chamfered mullions on the exterior and flush on the interior. The right return has a four-light timber mullioned window on the ground floor.

The interior contains several distinctive features. The granite ashlar back of the left-hand stack, with a hollow-chamfered cornice, is exposed in the passage—a typical regional feature of medieval houses. The right-hand partition of the passage is unusually constructed of massively wide oak planks fixed horizontally to rough timber posts, with the posts exposed in the centre room. A shouldered timber jamb survives from an early doorframe into the centre room. The left-hand room has an open fireplace with granite jambs, a timber lintel, and a bread oven, with a chamfered stopped axial beam. A stair rises in the front right corner of this room. The centre room has a similar open fireplace and a very deeply-chamfered crossbeam. The right-hand room has a similar fireplace.

The roof is of jointed cruck construction of late medieval date, with crucks side-pegged with mortised cranked collars to each truss. The truss above the left-hand room is interrupted by the stack and contains the remains of wattle and daub infill; a similarly infilled truss lies to the right of the right-hand partition. The roof timbers are heavily encrusted with soot throughout, including the half-hipped left end with complete rafters, battens, and thatch. Some new rafters have been added above the old rafters over the right end. There is no sign of a smoke louvre, but an unexplained arrangement of framing to the left of the axial stacks, visible on the first floor only, may relate to smoke escape.

This is an extremely interesting and unusually evolved house of medieval origins, retaining a very complete medieval roof. It has group value with Green Summers.