Outbuilding, About 30M West Of Higher Southtown Farmhouse

Outbuilding, about 30 metres west of Higher Southtown Farmhouse, West Pennard

An early to mid-17th century outbuilding that was converted to a cottage between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries. It is listed at Grade II* as an exceptionally rare example of pre-1700 timber-framed construction in a rural South West setting, with substantially complete original framing and high-quality craftsmanship.

The building is timber-framed on coursed and squared lias stone footings, with the upper part of the south gable wall constructed in brick. The timber-framing comprises oak timbers of relatively slender dimensions with straight or barely-curving tension braces and infill of rod and daub. The roof is currently clad with corrugated iron sheeting but was previously thatched and retains a brick end stack at the south end.

Built on a north-south axis with a small stream running parallel to its west side, the building is of one and a half storeys, two bays, and was originally open to the roof with a fireplace at the south end. It is now largely enclosed by secondary agricultural sheds added to its south and east sides from the late 19th century onwards.

The principal east elevation features a central doorway with an oak frame with simple chamfer and a plank and ledge door on wrought-iron strap hinges. The doorway is flanked by windows: a two-light mullioned window to the left retaining remains of timber glazing bars and a plank and ledge shutter on the inside, and to the north a three-light opening with mullions bearing ovolo mouldings and iron glazing bars, some with panes of leaded glass. The north gable wall's lower part is largely obscured by a late-19th-century privy and small shed, but a two-light mullioned window survives at first floor. The west elevation retains a two-light mullioned window largely covered by vegetation and a simple unglazed opening appearing to be a later insertion. The south gable has a small first floor opening to the right of the stack, probably dating from the building's 18th or 19th-century refurbishment.

The interior is dominated by a large inglenook in the south gable wall with a chamfered lintel with run-out stops carried on a stone jamb to the left. The chimney stack has been rebuilt in brick above fireplace level. The back of the fireplace contains a large opening with a truncated pyramidal head, blocked with brick, which includes a secondary smaller opening under a segmental head the size of a typical bread oven doorway, also blocked. The east jamb has been partly rebuilt in brick with evidence of a possible original opening close to floor level that may have been a raking hole. The larger blocked opening has been interpreted as the remains of a possible furnace or boiler for a maltings vat or a smoking chamber, suggesting the building's original industrial rather than domestic use. The first floor is carried on an axial chamfered beam, apparently introduced during the 18th or 19th-century refurbishment. The roof timbers include two re-used late medieval trusses at the north gable end and in the building's centre, with two rows of trenched purlins. A single set of windbraces survives between the purlins on the south side of the central truss, with only slots remaining on the north side.

Higher Southtown is an ancient settlement. The outbuilding is sited on a platform west of the farmhouse, detached from the historic farmyard in front of the house. The Grade II listed farmhouse itself contains late medieval fabric with evidence of high-quality modernisations from the 16th through early 18th centuries. Between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, the outbuilding was refurbished as a cottage, involving a major rebuild of the chimneystack and the introduction of a first floor. The building forms a strong historical group with the Grade II farmhouse.