Description

SY 08 NE NEWTON POPPLEFORD HIGH STREET,
AND HARPFORD Newton Poppleford
5/72 The Gardens, including
- outbuildings adjoining to north

GV II

House and outbuildings, once 2 cottages. Early C17, possibly earlier in places,
enlarged and rearranged in the late C17 or C18, C19 linhay. Plastered cob on stone
rubble footings; stone or cob stacks, one with an ashlar chimney shaft, the others
topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof.
L-shaped building. The main block faces south and its plan comprises 2 rooms with
an entrance lobby and stair at the right (east) end and another between the rooms.
The right room and entrance lobby was once a separate cottage but now has been
united (probably reunited) with the main house. The right room has a large
projecting rear lateral stack and the left room has an end stack. A long rear block
with lower roofline projects at right angles behind the left (western) room. Next
to the main block are 2 domestic rooms with an outer lateral stack. Behind them is
a barn (possibly part of the early C17 house) and behind that the C19 linhay facing
onto the rear courtyard. 2 storeys.
Main front has an irregular 3-window front of late C19 and C20 replacement casements
with glazing bars. The first floor windows have thatch eyebrows over. The main
doorway is left of centre and contains a late C19-early C20 part-glazed 4-panel door
and there is a plainer version at the right end. The former has a C20 porch with
hipped thatch roof on rustic posts. The roof is hipped to right and gable-ended to
left. The left end stack has an ashlar chimney shaft and weathered offsets. Around
the angle of the 2 blocks are some C20 brick outshots but the rear block shows a C17
oak 3-light window frame, its moulded mullions cut back a little to accommodate C19
casements. Further back the barn has full height C19 plank doors and over the top
the eaves are carried down as a small hood. The opposite barn door is much smaller
and a stable-type. It appears much older. The linhay is open-fronted with full
height posts (Alcock's Type T1). The roof is hipped at the end.
Interior is largely the result of apparently superficial C19 and C20 modernisations
which hide most of the earlier fabric and make definitive interpretation of the
building presently impossible. However the earliest part appears to be the rear
block including the left room of the main block. In the barn an early C17 side-
pegged jointed cruck roof truss with a pegged and shaped lap-jointed collar is
exposed. Others are plastered over in the rooms towards the front. Otherwise the
beams are boxed in except for one which is square in section and probably secondary.
The fireplaces throughout are blocked with C19 and C20 grates. In the front block
the first floor level was raised circa 1930 and the timbers apparently replaced.
The roof here is inaccessible and the trusses, maybe A-frames, are boxed into the
partitions. The early plaster is laid on water reeds rather than wooden lathes.
The Gardens is an attractive house where modernisation work may uncover interesting
early features. Its name derives from its use for many years as a market garden.
It was here the famous King Alfred daffodil was developed in the early C20 and an
old photograph shows a thatch roofed glasshouse in the grounds.

Listing NGR: SY0820589652

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26434183

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)