Fursdons

Fursdons is a late medieval farmhouse, ceiled in the early 17th century, with a detached range of uncertain original date. The house underwent significant alterations around 1856, when gabled dormers were added, mullioned windows were renewed and inserted, and a porch was rebuilt. Minor alterations occurred in the early to mid-20th century, including the infilling of a columnar porch.

The building is constructed of red sandstone rubble, partly rendered, with roughcast on the facade. It features timber framing to the porch, slate roofs with coped verges, and paired brick stacks on the gable ends. A lateral stack rises on the rear wall of the hall. The layout is L-shaped, believed to have originated as a double-ended open hall house, ceiled with a stair turret opening out of the hall. A former detached parallel range to the west is now linked via a two-story porch on the north front.

The main facade has one and a half storeys and a 1:1:2 bay arrangement, with all windows being 3-light, ovolo-moulded mullioned. Gabled dormers have coped verges and finials. A full-height gabled porch features a 2-light mullioned window and an ashlar depressed 4-centred arch doorframe with a similar moulded wooden inner doorway. The left return fronting the road is two stories with a 2:1:1 bay arrangement, with gable ends linked by a wall. The north front has a chamfered depressed 4-centred arch doorway, partly renewed.

The interior is not accessible for inspection but is said to contain evidence of smoke blackening on chamfered arch braced trusses, suggesting a double-ended open hall house. Other features include moulded door frames to the rear of the through passage and stair turret, a renewed lintel to a lateral fireplace, and a 6-panel compartment ceiling with chamfered beams in what is now the kitchen. The porch on the north front is believed to be later than the stair turret, which it surrounds, and was originally timber framed.

The rear range is said to contain an unusual kitchen fireplace complex with evidence of a former oven and curing chamber located to the rear of the fireplace, rather than to one side as is typical in Somerset. The house’s evolution is difficult to trace without a full internal inspection.

Fursdons was part of the Chipley Park estate and a nearby barn (not included in the listing due to alterations) bears a datestone inscribed "1856 A Sandford Esq," likely marking the date of the alterations to the main house. A watercolour by W Wheatley, held in the Braikenridge Collection at Taunton Castle, depicts the house prior to the 1840s alterations.