Staplemead

1661/0/10010 19-DEC-02

STAPLE FITZPAINE BULFORD Staplemead

II

House. Circa C15; remodelled circa early C17 [date stone 1618 E.H.]; altered late C20. Chert rubble. Double-Roman clay tile roof with gabled ends. Axial and gable-end stacks with rebuilt brick shafts. PLAN: 3-room and through-passage plan; lower end to right [E] unheated and formerly divided axially into two rooms; originally at least the hall was open to the roof and heated by an open-hearth fire. Circa early C17 [date stone 1618] the walls were rebuilt in stone, a chimney stack built at the lower end of the hall forming and backing onto a wide through-passage, the hall was floored and the inner room was extended to form a parlour with a solar above heated from a gable-end stack. EXTERIOR: 1 storey and attic. Asymmetrical 4-window south front; late C20 2-, 3- and 5-light casements with leaded panes, attic windows in large gabled dormers; stone porch on right with oven projection in angle on left, both with lean-to tile roofs and inner doorway with chamfered Tudor arch frame and late C20 plank door. Rear north, various late C20 casement windows, three large gabled attic dormers and small outshut on left with late C20 conservatory in angle. INTERIOR: Service room to east has chamfered cross-beam with hollow step stops and broad unchamfered joists; axial partition largely missing. Wide through-passage with timber-frame partition on low side with chamfered shouldered arch doorway to service room and deeply chamfered axial beam with large hollow step stops; doorway from passage to hall with unchamfered cranked head. Hall has deeply chamfered cross-beam with large hollow step stops, unchamfered joists and large fireplace with slightly cambered chamfered timber bressumer. Fine plank-and-muntin screen between the hall and parlour. Large parlour with framed ceiling with deeply chamfered intersecting beams and unchamfered joists. Winder stairs at low end of hall. Smoke-blackened principals of hall truss with mortice-and-tenon apex joint and trench for missing diagonal ridgepiece. Circa C17 clean truss at upper end of hall with collar and trenches for missing purlins and diagonal ridgepiece. SOURCE: Somerset Vernacular Buildings Research Group, report July 2000. A good example of a late Medieval Somerset vernacular house.