Description

HALWILL FOXHOLE
SX 49 NW
4/66 Foxhole Farmhouse
-
GV II
Farmhouse and adjoining shippon with loft over. Probably medieval origins with C16
and C17 alterations. Cob on stone rubble footings, plastered to the front, asbestos
slate roof gabled at ends of house, bitumen-painted slate roof to shippon, hipped at
left end. Stone stack with tall shaft on front heating hall, stone stack at right
end heating inner room.
A probable jetty suggest that the original plan was an open hall house, but the
extant building is largely C16 and C17. The late C16/early C17 plan was 3 room and
through passage with a shippon at the lower end and a hall stack on the front, the
inner room may have been unheated. A remodelling of the late C17 enlarged the inner
room and added a rear right crosswing, containing a stair, the eaves of the main
range may have been raised at the same time.
2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window front, the cross passage to the left with a C19
gabled porch canopy carried on timber brackets, the hall stack with a projecting
bread oven to the right of the door and regular fenestration of 3-light C19
casements, 3 panes per light. The shippon adjoining at the left has 2 entrances
under timber lintels and a loft doorway.
Interior The interior of the house is virtually unaltered since the C19. The rear
of the passage has been converted to a store room and the rear doorway is blocked by
a small C20 bathroom under a lean-to roof. The passage walls are solid to the lower
end, partition to the hall, which has a good circa late C16/early C17 granite
fireplace with 1 hollow-chamfered granite jamb, 1 hollow-chamfered stone rubble jamb
and a hollow-chamfered granite lintel. 2 chamfered ceiling beams have ogee stops and
the ceiling of the cross passage appears to have been jettied into the hall. 2
keeping places and a circa early C19 hall bench survive. A fine circa 1700 open well
stair with turned balusters in the crosswing with a first floor landing leading into
2 bedrooms and an apple loft over the passage. The pegged tie beam roof trusses are
probably late C17 and contemporary with the extension of the house. An ingenious
hinged section of the rear door of the hall was cut to allow cider barrels to be
brought into the house. Foxhole farmhouse is said to have been the home of the Soby
family, the present occupiers, for over 3 centuries and has been little altered since
the late C17.

Listing NGR: SX4175396992

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26458577

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.

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