Description

SS 09 SW
3/111

ROCKBEARE
MARSH GREEN HILL
Lower Marsh Farmhouse

II
House, former farmhouse. Early C17, possibly earlier core, enlarged in late C17-early C18, modernised in C19 and again circa 1970. Plastered stone rubble, maybe some cob; stone rubble stacks with C19 and C20 brick chimney shafts; slate roofs.

U-plan house. The main block facing south-east has a three-room plan and is early C17 and the two one-room plan wings to rear of either end are probably late C17-early C18 extensions. Both front rooms have end stacks, the left (south-western) is a large projecting kitchen stack with oven projection. The unheated central room is an entrance lobby with the stairs rising to rear with the stair landing projecting a little to rear. The main roof pitch is carried down over it between the two wings. The left rear wing has a projecting outer lateral stack. Disused axial stack in main block probably served first floor central chamber. On the right (north-eastern) end is a circa 1970 two-room single storey extension. Elsewhere two storeys with attic rooms added to main block in late C17-early C18.

Surprisingly asymmetrical three-window front comprising mostly C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars and including a twenty-pane sash ground floor right. The late C19 plank front door is left of centre and the hood is carried over a contemporary canted bay window adjacent to right. The left window is flanked by late C19 or C20 buttresses. The roof is steeply pitched, hipped each end and contains three forward facing dormers. On the right end is the flat-roofed extension of circa 1970. Each of the rear blocks has a hipped roof.

Interior: the entrance hall has a C20 crossbeam which may line of a demolished through passage screen. The right room was modernised in the C19 and the original fireplace is now blocked by a C19 grate with good contemporary chimneypiece. The early C17 crossbeam however is exposed; it is ovolo-moulded with scroll stops indicating that this was the parlour. The left front room has soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam. The fireplace here is large with a disused oven indicating that this was the kitchen. It is partly blocked. The lintel is covered by a board with a moulding along the bottom which may be C17. The chimneypiece is C19. In the front wall, near the fireplace is an early C18 round-backed cupboard with a solidly-made door still retaining one H-hinge. A cupboard in the rear wall has a panelled door hung on H-hinges.

In the rear block-room behind the kitchen the fireplace is blocked and has a C19 chimneypiece but the ceiling has an early C18 plaster cornice moulded with a broad ogee.The other rear block room, now a bathroom, was formerly a cold store or dairy with a plain, unchamfered crossbeam. The stairs are a late C19 or C20 replacement of the originals although the gap through the solid wall at first floor level is propped by a large C17 turned oak post. The first floor chambers have exposed crossbeams. They are soffit-chamfered with scroll stops except over the parlour where a possibly reused beam has late C16-early C17 step stops. Also there is a presumably reused C16 oak round-headed doorframe from the landing to the chamber in the left rear wing. The joinery detail is mostly C19 but some solid square-section doorframes and plain plank doors may be earlier. The main roof is carried on a series of late C17-early C18 A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars.

Listing NGR: SY0436493750

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26434160

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990