Description

KENTISBURY GRATTON LANE
SS 64 NW
2/92 Higher Cowley Farmhouse
- including barn, a shippon attached
to south-west end.
- II
Farmhouse, including attached barn and shippon. Farmhouse probably early C17 but
earlier fabric may well be concealed, refenestrated in C19. Attached barn and
shippon C19. Farmhouse rendered stone rubble and some cob. Bitumenized slate roof,
half-hipped at right end of main range. Barn of unrendered stone rubble with gable-
ended slate roof. Axial stone rubble hall stack rebuilt in C20 backing onto cross-
passage and brick stack to gable end of lower end wing.
Farmhouse basically 3 room-and-cross-passage plan with lower end to right. Gable
ended 2 storey wing projecting at right angles from front lower end, forming L-
shaped plan. L-shaped plan barn and shippon range extending from left end of
farmhouse in overall 3 sided front courtyard arrangement.
The farmhouse consists of a relatively small hall, heated by large axial stack
backing onto cross-passage. Projecting stair turret to rear of hall. Solid stone
rubble walls rise to the apex of the roof at each end of the hall. Narrow, unheated
inner room to left, divided by C19 axial brick partition into two smaller rooms, the
rear room used until recently as salting-house, the front room forming an entrance
lobby to inserted C19 front doorway. Beyond the inner room, part of the barn range
at the upper end has been taken into form a small kitchen. In mid C20 a second
staircase was inserted in the cross-passage when the house was divided into two
occupations. Ground floor of lower end not accessible at time of survey, but to
judge by superior window lintels at the lower gable end of the main range (the
'show' front facing the road) it was probably used as an unheated parlour. It was
also therefore not possible to assess on exterior evidence alone whether the gable
ended front wing was a later addition, the gable-end brick stack probably being a
later insertion.
2 storeys, the chambers over the main range housed almost entirely in the roof
space. Single C20 inserted gabled dormer. The roof is carried down forming canopy
to reused cross-passage doorway with 4 panelled door, the upper panels glazed, to
right of hall projection which has 2 C19 2-light casements, 9 panes per light to
left and 6 panes per light to right. Stone rubble porch with corrugated iron lean-
to roof (in line with hall and left projection) to inner room lobby entrance with
C19 plank door. Small C20 2 light window above. Lower end wing has single C19 3
light windows on each side and a 4 light window to front gable end with timber
lintels. Right end of main range has a C19 4 light window on each floor, 3 panes per
light to upper storey, 6 panes per light to ground floor, both with C17 ovolo-
moulded timber lintels terminating in hollow step stops. Small window openings with
mainly C19 fenestration intact to rear of main range; including projecting stair
turret. Barn attached to left end has double plank doors to rear cart entrance,
plank door to front. Blocked doorway and window to inner face, and loft door over
plank door to gable end of shippon projecting at right angles to front left end of
barn.
Interior: no ceiling beams survive to the hall or inner room, but the inaccessible
lower end is said to contain roughly chamfered axial beams. The hall fireplace
lintel replaced in C20. The C19 fittings, including ledged plank doors on both
floors and straight run staircase in rear stair turret are completely unaltered.
There is no access to the roofspace, but the purlins over the hall and inner room
are entirely carried by the solid wall partitions rising to the apex of the roof.
There is thus only a single truss to the main range, sited over the lower end with
slightly curving feet and chamfered soffits to the principals. Before the insertion
of the staircase in the cross-passage, the whole first floor of the lower end formed
the principal chamber, heated by a concealed fireplace in the back of the hall stack
showing the outline of an unusual peaked timber lintel with hollow step-stopped
chamfer.
In the rear wall of the chamber, an apparently infilled doorway may indicate that
originally a second stair turret provided separate access from the parlour.

Listing NGR: SS6367145134

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400647

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)