Description

UPLOWMAN
ST 01 NW
4/172 Spalsbury Farmhouse including
-
5.4.66 garden area wall to the south-east
- II*

Farmhouse. Early - mid C16, with major later C16 and C17 improvements, some C19
modernisation and a C19 extension. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone
rubble stacks, one with a stone rubble chimneyshaft, the others are topped with C19
and. C20 brick; concrete tile roof, formerly thatch, slate to part of service wing
and outshots.
Plan and development: L-plan house. The main block faces south-east and is built
across the hillslope. It has a 4-room plan. The left end room has a large gable-
end stack. This room is connected to the hall by a corridor in front of a couple of
small unheated rooms. The hall itself has a projecting rear lateral stack. The
main stair is between the hall and the right end room which has a gable-end stack.
2-room plan service wing built at right angles in front of and overlapping the left
end room. Here the first room has an axial stack and the second one has an outer
corner stack.
The historic development of this house is not easy to determine. The roofspace is
inaccessible but the hall section at least is known to have been open to the roof
and heated by an open hearth fire. The fireplace here was inserted in the mid or
late C16 and the hall was floored in the early or mid C17. To right (north-east) of
the hall is the stair but this is a C19 insertion into the former inner room. This
was a relatively large room which was converted to a kitchen in the mid C17. The 2-
room and corridor section to left of the hall appears to have been converted from a
through-passage and small unheated dairy, the latter adjoining the left (south-west)
room. This left end room also appears to have been a kitchen. This is somewhat
confusing but maybe this was a late C16 - early C17 kitchen, later superceeded by
the one the other end. House is now 2 storeys throughout.
Exterior. irregular 6-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. Right of
centre is the doorway inserted to the C19 stair. Slightly left of centre is thought
to. be the former passage front doorway. Both contain C19 plank doors. The first
has a C19 gabled porch and the second has a C20 porch with rustic posts. The
service wing has C19 and C20 casements, most with glazing bars. The main block roof
is gable-ended, the service wing roof is hipped.
Good interior: the left end room has a massive stone fireplace with a chamfered
cambered oak lintel. The crossbeam here has a broad hollow chamfers with step
stops. Between this and the putative dairy the partition includes a crank-headed
doorway, maybe part of an oak plank-and-muntin screen. There is an oak plank-and-
muntin screen on the first floor directly above. There are two more, one each end
of the hall. The lower end is the plainest, its muntins chamfered only on the
passage side. The upper end screen has richly moulded muntins; it is probably mid
C17 in date. Here is another stone fireplace with oak lintel. The C19 stair
occupies one bay of the 3-bay ceiling which, like the hall ceiling, is carried on
crossbeams with deep chamfers. The kitchen fireplace is also stone with a chamfered
oak lintel and it includes an oven and a walk-in smoking chamber alongside. The 2
present stairs are probably C19, the main one inserted into the inner room and
another from the left end room. Both have first floor balustrades which reuse early
or mid Cl7 turned oak balusters. The roof is carried on a series of side-pegged
jointed cruck trusses. The roofspace is inaccessible and therefore it is not
possible to prove whether they are all of the same date. The hall section at least
is early or mid C16 and smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The
farmer has kept some of the sooted battens which were removed when the thatch was
removed.
The narrow strip of garden across the front is enclosed by a C19 low stone rubble
wall which includes a stone mounting block at the right end.

Listing NGR: ST0244417580

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547996

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide