Description

THORNFALCON

1072/5/144 THORN LANE
01-NOV-02 (South side)
Court House East and Court House West

II

House; subdivided into two dwellings. Circa late C15; remodelled circa late C16/early C17; extended C18 and remodelled and extended circa 1870. Blue lias random rubble, partly roughcast, Ham stone dressings. Plain and scalloped clay tile roofs with Ham stone coping and finials to gables. Axial, lateral and gable-end stacks with brick shafts.
PLAN: Originally 3-room and through-passage plan; at least the hall and service end to left [west] open to the roof and heated from an open hearth fire; parlour with a large fireplace at the side and a solar above in a cross-wing to the right [east]. Circa late C16 or early C17 hall and service end floored to create chambers above. Extended at rear in C18 and C19. Remodelled and extended circa 1870 at either end in Victorian Gothic style. Subdivided into two dwellings late C20.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 8-bay south front. Original house is the 5-bay range at the centre with gabled cross-wings to left and right and gabled 2-storey porch at the centre; late C19 stone mullion windows with hoodmoulds; 4-centred arch doorway and sundial in gable of porch; original right-hand cross-wing extended by large canted 2-storey bay with moulded corbels to gable above; gabled extensions to left and right with oriels on first floor and corner buttresses. Entrance on east side has moulded Ham stone 2-centred arch doorway with carved spandrels, label and moulded timber Tudor arch inner doorframe with plank door. Rear north hipped roof wing on right, gable on left and range at centre with large stair window on left, C17 moulded timber 3-light first floor window at centre and circa early C19 4-light window on right with later outshut below; circa 2000 single-storey wing on left.
INTERIOR: Parlour has framed ceiling with moulded intersecting beams and large late C15 moulded Ham stone fireplace with carved panelled overmantel with cusped ogee arches, shields and rosettes. Former hall has framed ceiling with moulded plastered intersecting beams and turned wooden pendants in the panels, panelling and late C19 chimneypiece. Former lower end room has large fireplace with chamfered timber bressumer and ovens. Dining room [former library] has Victorian Jacobean style chimneypiece with pilastered overmantel, panelling and ceiling with moulded panels and pendants. Early and late C19 staircases, an C18 chimneypiece in former hall chamber and various Victorian chimneypieces. Early and later C19 panelled doors. The principals and tenoned cambered collars of three smoke-blackened roof trusses survive over the hall and lower end of the Medieval house, the purlins and wind-braces are missing.
From late C18 to 1979 the home of the Chisholm-Batten family.
SOURCE: Somerset Vernacular Building Research Group report, March 2001.

Listing NGR: ST2803023757

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26472013

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

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)