Description

DIPTFORD
Lower Bearscombe
SX75SW+SX75SE
8/218 & 9/218 Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Probably C16 or earlier, the lower end demolished, extended at
higher end and remodelled in C17. Slate rubble with roughcast front and
slate hung right hand south gable end. Large rendered stone rubble chimney
stacks; the gable end stack to right was originally an axial stack and the
axial stack to the left was originally a gable end stack; both heightened
with brick shafts.
Plan: 3-room and through passage plan originally, the lower end to the left--
has been demolished together with the cross or through passage. The hall,
possibly originally open to the roof has a stack at its lower end backing
onto the former passage and the relatively large former inner roof has a
stack at the higher end. In the C17 the lower right end including the
passage was demolished and a 1-room plan addition built at the higher right
end containing the kitchen using the former inner room stack by inserting a
fireplace with an oven on the kitchen side. The former inner room now the
central room, was divided by an axial partition (since removed) forming a
small unheated room at the back and an axial passage at the front linking
the kitchen at the left end with the former hall at the right end and a
doorway inserted at the front of the passage with 2-storey porch formed the
new entrance to the C17 house. The newel stairs in a projecting turret at
the front of the lower end of the hall may have been part of the C17
remodelling as the hall is likely to have been originally open to the roof.
Exterior: storeys asymmetrical 3 window range with a rectangular stair
turret at the right end of the front. Gabled 2-storey porch to left of
centre, its first floor walls slightly corbelled out, a small first floor
2-light casement with a slate hoodmould a wide square-headed doorway,
wooden benches inside and a blocked slit window on the right hand side; a
C20 glazed plank inner door. Ground floor small C19 2-light casement to
hall to right and a C19 3-light casement to the left, both with glazing
bars and slate hood moulds. Above the left hand window a C20 gabled hall
dormer. All the windows have slate sills.
At the back various C19 and C20 12 and 3-light casement sin original small
openings, a blocked doorway to left into former hall and a doorway to right
now within a later outbuilding to the left at the rear a small single
storey outshut with a slit window on the lower left side.
Interior: Stone newel stairs in a turret at the front lower end of the
hall. The fireplace at the lower end of the hall has dressed slate jambs
but the lintel has been removed. The hall ceiling is plastered. There is
a short section of plank and muntin screen between the hall and former
inner room; it is exposed on the inner room side only where the muntins are
roughly chamfered. The central room (former inner room) has thin roughly
chamfered joists with straight cut stops. The fireplace at the higher end
of the former inner room is blocked but the chamfered timber lintel is
exposed. The left hand room in the C17 addition has a roughly chamfered
cross-beam and half-beam with run-out stops. The fireplace in this room
makes use of the former inner room (central room) stack and has a blocked
over brick the lintel has been replaced with a brick arch probably in C19.
There is also in this room an early C19 cupboard with panelled doors.
There is one probably C17 plank door on the first floor between the hall
and inner room chambers.
Roof: Access to the roof space is very restricted. The roof seem to
have been mostly replaced in C20 with soft wood trusses but a rafter of the
old roof remains and appears to be smoke-blackened. The roof structure
over the 2-storey porch can be seen from the chamber over the porch; it has
its original trusses the principals with straight feet have threaded or
deeply trenched purlins.

Listing NGR: SX7499853890

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26402095

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)