Mount Pleasant Farmhouse

THROWLEIGH MURCHINGTON SX 68 NE 3/225 Mount Pleasant Farmhouse

GV II

Farmhouse. C16 with major late C16 and C17 improvements, last modernised in the C19. Whitewashed granite stone rubble with large roughly-shaped quoins; granite stacks, one with its original granite ashlar chimney shaft; thatch roof. Plan and development: L-shaped house on level ground. The main block faces south- south-east, say south, and it has a 3-room-and-cross-passage plan. There is no sign of any passage rear doorway. Small unheated inner room (probably used as a dairy) at the left (west) end. Hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage and small unheated service end room. 1-room plan parlour block projecting at right angles to rear of inner room with a gable-end stack. At one time the parlour block had been used as a separate 1-room plan cottage. It is not possible to determine the early development of the house since the main block roof was replaced in the C17. Nevertheless it is clear that the house begun as an open hall house and there is evidence that the inner room too was open to the roof. This suggests early C16 origins. House is now 2 storeys. Exterior: 3-window front (with only one to the first floor) of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is right of centre and contains a C19 plank door and the eaves are carried down over as a hood. Roof is half-hipped to left and gable-ended to right. Rear of the main block is blind. The outer side of the rear parlour wing also contains C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars and a secondary late C19 - early C20 part-glazed door. Interior appears to-be largely the result of a superficial C19 modernisation but the original layout appears well preserved. The hall has a granite- ashlar fireplace. At the upper end of the hall a series of axial joists with rounded ends provides evidence of an internal jetty. The hall was floored over probably in the mid or late C17 by a roughly-finished crossbeam. No carpentry detail shows in the inner or service rooms. The parlour has a soffit-chamfered axial beam and the fireplace is blocked by a C19 grate. Roof was not inspected although the bases of the principals show in the main block and indicate C17 A-frame roof trusses. Mount Pleasant is a little-modernised farmhouse and one of a group of attractive listed buildings in the hamlet.

Listing NGR: SX6872088334