Description

RUISHTON

1072/5/155 HENLADE
21-FEB-86 Musgrave Farmhouse

II*

House, formerly farmhouse. Circa early C14; remodelled circa late C16; extended circa mid C17 and remodelled circa mid C19. Roughcast stone rubble. Slate hipped and gable-ended roof, with double Roman clay tiles to rear. Gable-end and axial stacks with brick shafts.
PLAN AND DEVELOPMENT: L-shaped plan. The Medieval front range contains a large 3-bay open hall and an inner room and solar at the high [right] end separated from the hall by a closed truss; the cross-passage and truncated low left [W] end were separated by low screens. Circa late C16, floors inserted into hall and possibly into low end and axial stack built at low end of hall. Circa mid C17, wing added to rear of high [E] end. Remodelled circa mid C19 when eaves at front were raised and hall sub-divided axially forming a stair hall at the back and the kitchen wing was extended.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window south front; C19 3-light casement to right of centre, late C20 window to right and two late C19 4-pane sashes above with C19 2-light casement to left over plank door with C20 open porch. Rebuilt stone rubble left [W] gable end. Lower eaves at rear, plank door on right in old frame; gable-ended wing on left with outshut in angle and lower gable-ended wing on end with outshut. East side has small C17 2-light chamfered timber mullion window frame on first floor with C19 12-pane sash to right.
INTERIOR: C18 fielded 2-panel doors; plank doors; mid C19 joinery includes staircase with turned newel and stick balusters. Circa mid to late C17 staircase with splat balusters and C17 moulded and panelled door on first floor. Hall, inner room/parlour and kitchen have framed ceilings with deeply chamfered intersecting beams, the parlour with circa mid C17 moulded plaster ceiling with frieze of vines and fruit, moulded cornice and centre and corner motifs to ceiling panels with fruit and leaves. Curved feet of trusses exposed in ceiled chambers. Main front range has 4-bay hall roof structure heavily encrusted with soot, including closed truss at high end of hall smoke-blacked on hall side only; the cruck trusses have central posts supported on collars and rising to small saddles which carry a diagonally-set ridgepiece; curved longitudinal braces from feet of posts to ridgepiece; two central trusses have arch-braces to collars; arch-braces of one truss, some longitudinal-braces and most of the common-rafters missing; evidence of louvre; clean roof over inner room rebuilt except for truncated principals; roof over rear wing probably jointed cruck trusses.
SOURCE: Somerset Vernacular Building Research Group report, May 2000.

Listing NGR: ST2691423580

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17555458

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990