Oatens Farmhouse

ST11SE CHURCHSTANTON CP

7/18 Oatens Farmhouse

II

Longhouse. Possibly late medieval, ceiled C16, subsequently altered, restored C20. Roughcast over rubble, half hipped thatched roof, stone stacks left gable end and to left of through passage. Longhouse, 2 rooms left of through passage originally open hall, 2 storeys inserted right with end bay open to roof. One and a half storeys, 2:1 bays, all C20 wooden casements, left 2-light set below eaves, roof continued as catslide over projection beside entrance, dormer to right rising from eaves, ground floor 2 windows left, one right of square headed plank door. Interior: recess with canted walls into through passage stack, peaked doorframe adjoining, chamfered lintel to fireplace, bread oven or curing chamber blocked on facade wall, gable end room with lateral chamfered beam, step and runout stops, modern grate with evidence that there was gable entry at one time. This opening now filled with a window with an early C17 table with turned legs forming the lintel. The legs rest on the window cill,and the area beneath is hollow. Why a table should be occupying this position is unclear. It does not appear to be of sufficient quality to have been an altar table. Possibly the result of a centuries old joke, the point of which is now lost, or an early example of surrealism in Sumerset? (Though the parish was in Devon until 1896). To the left of the through passage a smoke blackened jointed cruck is set in from the half-hipped gable end on the front wall, the rear section has been cut. There is considerable smoke blackening on the roof timbers at this end, the result of some agricultural activity. Upper storey of dwelling not sighted; a very interesting farmhouse. (VAG Report unpublished SRO, August 1984).

Listing NGR: ST1890212297