Description

SX 68 SE CHAGFORD

5/52 Lower Hurston Farmhouse
- including garden walls adjoining
to south
GV II

Farmhouse. C16 with C17 improvements, extended and modernised circa 1970. Granite
stone rubble with dressed granite quoins; granite stacks, the oldest with a granite
ashlar chimney shaft; thatch roof, corrugated iron to the outshot.
Plan and development: the original part of the house has a 2-room-and-through-
passage plan and faces south-south-east, say south. The largest room (the hall or
parlour) is that to left (west) and it has a large axial stack backing onto the
passage and a granite newel staircase in the rear end corner. The right room has a
rear lateral stack which may be an insertion as late as the C19. Circa 1970 a third
room with a rear lateral stack was added on the right east end. The break between
the 2 builds is marked by a straight join. Secondary outshots across the rear.
The development of the old house is not easy to establish since the roofspace here is
inaccessible. However it seems safe to assume that it began as a C16 open hall
house which was improved and floored over in the C17.
Exterior: overall irregular 4-window front of mostly C20 casements with glazing
bars. On the ground floor left end however there is a C17 granite 3-light window
with chamfered mullions and in the extension, at the right end, there is a C20 5-
light granite-mullioned window in similar C17 style. The eaves rise over all the
first floor casements. The front passage doorway is left of centre and contains a
C20 plank door and there is another C20 part-glazed door into the extension. Roof is
gable-ended to right and has a steep half hip to left.
Interior: the hall/parlour is a particularly good room even though the large granite
fireplace has been much rebuilt. The crossbeam is mid C17; it is soffit chamfered
with bar-step stops and the joists are scratch-moulded. Granite newel stair rising
from the corner. The crossbeam in the other room has lost its finish. Roof of true
cruck trusses of large scantling; probably C16 but the roofspace is inaccessible and
therefore any datable structural detail and any smoke-blackening could not be
examined.
This is an interesting and attractive house. It is tempting to interpret the house
as a small C16 3-room-and-through-passage plan house and that the inner room and hall
were knocked together in the mid C17 refurbishment.

Listing NGR: SX6862984200

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400079

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

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living