Description

SW 63 NE SITHNEY GWAVAS

8/247 Gwavas Farmhouse
-
5.11.74
II

Farmhouse. C17, extended in the C18 and C19. Painted rubble walls with wooden
lintels; dressed granite quoins to the C19 extensions and rebuilding and slate skis
throughout. Mostly fairly steep grouted scantle slate roofs with gable ends. Stone
stacks over the gable ends of the C17 range (north-west/south-east axia), brick
chimneys over the other 2 gable ends and a brick chimney behind the lower end room in
the angle between the porch and the back wall. Handmade C17 crested clay ridge tiles
over the roof of the earlier range which is on 2 levels.
Plan : cruciform overall plan plus lean-to porch in south angle, lean to at lower
gable end and lean-to earth closet at the right hand side of the front wing.
Originally probably a T-shaped plan of 3 rooms: a lower end room, left, perhaps the
hall/kitchen, a higher end room probably the parlour; a cross passage between and the
stair and a small service room in a shallow wing at right angles to the middle fo the
rear. This rear wing appears to have been lengthened probably in the C18 and
heightened circa mid C19. In probably the early C19 a 1-room plan wing was added at
right angles to the middle of the front blocking the original doorway, with its left
hand side as the front and a doorway in the angle. At probably the same time the
original parlour was converted to become a pantry, its rear corner (right) rebuilt
and a new window inserted at the rear to provide through-ventilation. Later in the
C19 the lean-tos were added, the porch in the rear left hand angle probably also a
wash house.
2 storeys. Slightly irregular 2 window north-east front with the blind gable end of
a wing slightly left of middle, its left hand wall covering the right hand jambs of
the ground and first floor windows lighting the lower end rooms, left. The front
wing and the lower end share the same eaves level, the right hand parlour front has a
higher eaves level. The ground floor left hand opening is square with a circa early
C19 12-pane hornless sash with a high meeting rail, the narrower 16 pane hornless
sash over is of similar date. The parlour front right was slightly remodelled in the
early C19. There were probably originally 3 ground floor windows with narrow piers
of masonry between. The left hand window opening is blocked and the right hand
window opening remodelled. The middle (now left-hand) window has a 15-pane 2-light
horizontal-sliding sash (similar window in rear wall) with zinc gauze over the left-
hand light. Over this window and the blocked opening to the left is the original C17
ovolo-moulded lintel with scrolled stops like the ram's horns of Ionic capitals. The
right hand window is a circa late C19 2-light horizontal sliding sash and the first
floor window is a tall circa early C19 16-pane hornless sash in a narrowed opening.
The other elevations are unaltered since the C19. A curious roof dormer with 6-pane
light is probably to light the stairs.
Interior not inspected, uninhabited at the time of survey 1986.
Some interesting C17 detail including the moulded lintels, the ridge tiles and the
stone chimneys, however the later additions are also interesting and give the house
an unusually complicated appearance.

Listing NGR: SW6537529286

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26434960

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

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)