Description

COTLEIGH HOLMSLEIGH GREEN
ST 20 SW
11/14 Greenways Farmhouse
-
- II

Farmhouse. Early C16 with later C16 and C17 improvements; somewhat altered by major
C19 and C20 refurbishments and modernisations. Local stone and flint rubble; stone
rubble stacks, one with a stone rubble chimneyshaft, the others topped with C19 and
C20 brick; thatch roof, some replaced with slate to rear.
Plan and development: house with an irregular plan which is built on essentially
level ground. The main block faces south-west and has a 3-room plan. At the left
(north-west) end is a study/office with a projecting front lateral stack. Large
central room has an axial stack backing onto the narrower right end room (the
present kitcnen/dining room). 2-storey outshots to rear of central and left rooms
and these include the main stair behind the study/office. The main entrance is now
in the left end into the stair hall. There is another entrance on the front into
the middle of the centre room and it has a porch. A 1-room plan block projects at
right angles in front of the right room.
The layout is essentially the result of C19 and C20 refurbishments. The historic
core is the left and centre rooms of the main block. Originally this had a 3-room-
and-through-passage plan. The left room (the study/office) was the inner room. The
large centre room has been made by removing both passage partitions and uniting
hall, passage, and service end kitchen.
A disused rear lateral stack once heated the hall. Much of the early carpentry
detail has been removed but one early C16 roof truss remains proving that much, if
not at all, the original house was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth
fire. The process by which the chimneystacks and floors were added in not clear due
to the amount of later rebuilding. However it seems that the service end was
rebuilt as a kitchen in the early or mid C17. The front wing and right end room
were built in the C19 as service rooms and agricultural outbuildings and both were
much rebuilt when they were brought into domestic use in the C20. The rear outshots
too are probably C19 and much rebuilt in the C20. The house is 2 storeys
throughout.
Exterior: irregular 3:1:1 - window front of C20 casements with glazing bars and
similar windows around the other sides. The former passage front doorway is left of
centre and lies behind a C20 gabled porch containing a contemporary glazed door.
The present doorway in the left end contains a C20 door and thatch-roofed porch on
plain posts. The roofs have half-hipped ends.
Interior: is largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations and most of the
exposed carpentry dates from these later building phases. Nevertheless the original
layout can still be appreciated and some older carpentry may be still hidden. The
hall fireplace is blocked and the former inner room (study/office) fireplace appears
to be a C19 rebuild. However there is still the C17 large kitchen fireplace; stone
rubble with oak-framed front and it contains a large oven. Across the chimneybreast
is a contemporary chamfered and step-stopped half beam. Above the kitchen there
survives the remains of an early C16 side-pegged jointed cruck truss. This truss
along with the purlins, common rafters and underside of the original thatch in the
bays each side is smoke-blackened from the original hearth fire. In the front wing
there is a reused early C17 moulded beam.

Listing NGR: ST2047002915

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26459668

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

• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover