Description

DOWLAND
SS 50 NE
8/101 Pewson Barton
II

Farmhouse. Almost certainly late medieval with C17 and later alterations and
additions. Rendered cob and exposed rubble walls. Gable-ended thatch roof,
corrugated asbestos to wing. Partly projecting rendered rubble front lateral stack
with tapering cap and brick shaft; brick axial stack, one at right gable and one
axial to wing.
Plan: Originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan with lower end to the left. Early
roof trusses survive over the hall and lower end and it is likely that they denote a
medieval origin to the house which originally had an open hall with central hearth.
As there is no access to the roof space this cannot however be proved. If there
were an open hall it was ceiled in the circa early C17 with a front lateral stack
added. A small dairy was built out behind the inner room. The additions at the
lower, left-hand end, are more problematic; they compromise an L-shaped range,
projecting to the front but apparently in 3 different sections of which the end part
of the wing appears to be the earliest of C17 date, and the 2 intermediate sections
later. One explanation may be that the Cl7 range was a detached kitchen and the
space between it and the house was infilled later. The whole of this addition now
performs a non-domestic function.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front, 3 to ground floor, with L-shaped
addition projecting from left-hand end. Late C20 2 and 3-light casements apart from
single light mid to late C20 casements without glazing bars to left on ground floor.
C19 or early C20 plank door to passage to left of centre with hall stack projecting
to its right. The stone addition at the left-hand end has 2 doorways on its inner
face with brick arches. Small dairy wing behind right-hand end of house.
Interior: C17 square-headed hollow and ovolo-moulded doorframe into hall from
passage. The dairy has a heavy plain cambered head wooden doorframe. Hall
fireplace blocked. Front room of wing contains chamfered and hollow step-stopped
cross beams and open fireplace with worn wooden lintel.
Roof: over the hall and lower end are 2 face-pegged jointed crucks probably with
morticed collars, the front blade of the hall truss has been superceded by the hall
stack. There is no access to the roof-space but there is every likelihood that this
is a medieval roof structure.
Other features are also likely to be concealed in this interesting house which was
evidently of some quality.

Listing NGR: SS5816609603

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26398576

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings