Description

SS 92 SW STOODLEIGH

5/165 Steart Farmhouse

-
II

Farmhouse. Circa early C16 origins, remodelled and probably extended in the early
C17, some alterations of the C18. Rendered stone rubble; slate roof (formerly
thatched), gabled at ends; left end stack with stone shaft, axial stack to left of
centre; projecting rear lateral stack, C20 rear lateral stack to right of centre.
Plan: Present plan single depth, 5 rooms wide with the principal entrance to right of
centre into a passage with the main stair to the rear of the passage. The extreme
right hand room is a store room with wool loft over. The origins of the house are a
late medieval open hall, probably 3 rooms and a passage, lower end to the right,
which extended at least from the axial stack as far as the right end wall (4 bays).
The date of the extreme left hand room (the kitchen) is less clear, it may have been
added in the C17 when the house was floored and the hall heated by the rear lateral
stack. The lower end room was unheated until the C20. The left end kitchen and the
hall are linked by an axial passage parallel to the rear wall suggesting that the
inner room between them was adapted as a dairy, possibly in the C18, with the stack a
later insertion when it was upgraded to a small parlour with a rather awkward stair
rising behind the stack. The lower end room was unheated until the C20 and known as
the cellar.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5 window front plus one opening to the store and
wall loft at the right end. C20 plank door to right of centre into the passage. 1-,
2- and 3-light C19 and C20 timber casements, the C19 casements with small panes.
Ground floor doorway and loft doorway above to right hand.
Interior: All five ground floor rooms have chamfered stopped crossbeams, the hall
crossbeams with good scroll stops. The kitchen and hall fireplaces are blocked but
may conceal earlier features; rounded recess adjacent to kitchen fireplace, possibly
a former stair or curing chamber. A short section of plank and muntin screen
survives at the higher end of the entrance passage.
Roof: 3 massive smoke-blackened jointed cruck trusses, side-pegged, below a later
roof structure. The ridge is missing but was diagonally-set and some sooted rafters
survive. There are some additions to the roof construction, a section of cob wall in
the roofspace adjacent to the left hand truss contains a sooted post which formerly
carried the ridge. The cob wall is clean on one side but possibly sooted on the hall
side.

Listing NGR: SS9375820178

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400737

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey