Description

SX 68 NE CHAGFORD

3/76 Thorn Farmhouse and Thorn Farm
- Cottage

GV II

Farmhouse and cottage, formerly all one house. Early C16 with major late C16 and C17
improvements, one dated 1687; modernised circa 1980 when subdivided. Granite stone
rubble with roughly-dressed quoins; granite stacks with granite ashlar chimney
shafts; thatch roof.
Plan and development: originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan farmhouse facing
south and built down a hillslope. The inner room at the uphill left (west) end has a
gable end stack. Hall has a large axial stack backing onto the through passage and a
newel stair turret projecting to rear. The service end room has a gable end kitchen
stack. Thorn Farmhouse occupies the former inner room, hall and passage with a
single storey extension of circa 1980 to rear of the inner room. Thorn Farm Cottage
occupies the former service end kitchen and has a service outshot to rear, converted
from a woodstore circa 1980. It seems that the original house was open to the roof
from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire.
Through the late C16 and C17 the fireplaces were inserted and the rooms progressively
floored over. The datestone of 1687 probably dates the flooring of the hall and the
reroofing of the hall and inner room. Now 2 storeys thorughout.
Exterior: overall irregular 4-window front of C20 casements, all but one with glazing
bars. The ground floor left window (to the inner room) has been converted to French
windows. The front passage doorway (to the farmhouse) is right of centre. It
contains an oak doorframe of uncertain date with a C20 door behind a C20 porch with
monopitch slate roof. Alongide to right is the doorway inserted for the cottage. It
contains a C20 door behind a contemporary glass-sided porch with monopitch slate
roof. The datestone, inscribed 1687, is set under the sill of the hall chamber
fireplace. The main roof is gable-ended.
Interior contains features from all the main building phases. The oldest feature is
the early C16 2-bay roof over the service end which contains 2 true cruck trusses
with a small yoke at the apex carrying a diagonal ridge (Alcock's apex type L1). The
whole roof structure and the underside of the thatch here is thoroughly smoke-
blackened indicating that the original roof was open to the roof from end to end and
heated by an open hearth fire. Below, the service end kitchen is probably C17. The
crossbeam has plain soffit chamfers, the same finish as the oak lintel of the granite
fireplace. This fireplace contains an oven each side, the left one unusually
large.
The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the late C16-early C17. The back in the
passage, is granite ashlar with chamfered plinth and soffit-chamfered cornice.
Alongside a contemporary oak doorframe leads from passage to hall; it has an
ellipitcal, almost round, head and a chamfered surround. The fireplace is large,
plain and built wholly cf granite ashlar. At the upper end of the hall an oak plank-
and-muntin screen has chamfered muntins with roll stops high enough for an upper end
bench. The screen may be late C16-early C17 although the rest of the structure of
the hall and inner room appears to be late C17. Both rooms have soffit-chamfered
crossbeams with late step stops and the oak lintel of the inner room fireplace has a
similar finish. Smaller similar fireplace to the chamber over. Roof over this
section of tall and steeply-pitched A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars.
Thorn Farmhouse and Thorn Farm Cottage form part of a group of varied listed
buildings which make up the attractive hamlet of Thorn.

Listing NGR: SX6845286582

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26439844

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, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)