Description

BLACKAWTON
SX74NE Seccombe Farmhouse
4/14
II

Farmhouse. Circa early C17, remodelled in circa mid C19. Local slate
rubble. Rendered on north elevation. Slate roof with gabled ends and red
clay ridge tiles. Rendered gable end stacks, the left and end and rear
stacks project.
Plan and development: L-shaped on plan. The house originally faced north
and had a 2-room plan main range, the large right hand (west) room heated
from a large gable end fireplace was probably the hall/kitchen and the left
(east) room might have originally been unheated. There was a passage
between the 2 rooms with a 2 storey porch at the front (north). At the
front of the right hand room there is a parlour wing with a gable end stack
and straight staircase at the junction of the wing and the main range. The
house was remodelled in circa mid C19 and reoriented so that the south
elevation became the front and the passage in the main range was widened to
farm a stairhall. In the C20 a single storey extension was built in the
space between the north wing and porch.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3 window south front with C20 plastic
windows. Doorway to left of centre with circa mid C19 flush panel door, the
top panels glazed and with later C19 or C2O slated canopy above.
Rear north elevation was originally the front. It has a gabled 2-storey
porch to the left of centre with an ovolo-moulded lintel over the first
floor window which is a later C19 2-light casement with a slate sill; the
inner doorway has a similar lintel and the outer doorway to the porch has a
segmental arched timber lintel without a chamfer. The rear wing to the
right is rendered and has a large projecting gable end stack and C20 plastic
windows. A C20 flat-roof single storey extension in the angle conseals a
doorway into the wing which has a double ovolo-moulded lintel, this was
probably the parlour window lintel.
Interior: Most of the interal joinery is C19. The former kitchen (west
room) has large open fireplace with chamfered slate-on-edge lintel and
splayed dressed stone jambs; there is no sign of an oven. Above the
fireplace an ovolo-moulded half-beam. The outer 2 cross-beams have chamfers
with run-out steps. The east room has no visible early features. The
stairhall has a single room mid to later C19 staircase with stick balusters.
The rear wing (now a kitchen) was formerly the parlour and has a short
section of a C17 moulded plaster frieze with a row of Pegasus; there is said
to have been a moulded plaster ceiling in this room. The staircase between
the farmer kitchen and farmer parlour is C19 but probably in the original
position.
The roof over the main range has clear principal rafters over the left end
with missing threaded purlins and mortices for cellars which are also
missing, one of the principals has a curved foot. The trusses over the
right hand end have later lapped and pegged collars. The roof structure
over the rear wing was apparently replaced.

Listing NGR: SX7926049896

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26401812

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)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)