Description

MORCHARD BISHOP
SS 70 NE
5/132
- Wigham Farmhouse including
outbuilding adjoining to north-
west
- II

House, former farmhouse and adjoining outbuilding, former barn and shippon with
layloft over. Mid C17 farmhouse with C20 extension; C19 barn and shippon.
Plastered cob on rubble footings; rubble stacks topped with plastered brick;
thatched roof to farmhouse, corrugated iron to outbuildings. Long range overlooking
valley to south-west comprising farmhouse to right and former barn to left and with
shippon block at right angles projecting forward from left (north-west) end. 4-room
plan to farmhouse with dairy at left end, service room left of centre, hall right of
centre and inner room at right end. Now single storey C20 extension on right end.
Service room has large lateral stack projecting to rear and large axial stack to
hall backing onto service room. Apparently original central door gives a lobby
entrance plan. Newel turret projecting to rear of hall. 2 storeys. Overall 7
window front of late C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars or applied lead, mainly
circa 1980 PVC casements to farmhouse. The 5 first floor windows to farmhouse have
thatched eyebrows over, C20 French window left of farmhouse centre and late C19
gabled dormer to former barn. Both doors have porches with gabled thatched roofs;
C19 or possibly earlier porch to main door and C20 open sided porch to dairy. Roof
is gabled to right with hipped roof to C20 extension and hipped roof to former
shippon. Both stacks have original plastered rubble chimney shafts now extended
with brick. Rear of inner room has an C18 2-light flat-faced mullion window with 2
vertical iron bars each and containing small rectangular panes of leaded glass.
Good interior. Dairy and inner room have plain carpentry detail. Service room has
a chamfered and scroll-stopped cross beam but fireplace was rebuilt in C20. Hall
has chamfered and straight cut-stopped cross beam, a massive stone fireplace with
chamfered and scroll-stopped lintel and a bread oven of early brick with stone
doorway to right, an oak plank-and-muntin screen with chamfered and runout-stopped
posts to inner room, and cream oven alcove in front wall. Original stairhead lobby
with round-headed arch to inner room chamber and oak doorframes with chamfered and
scroll-stopped surrounds to hall and service room chambers. Original roof carried
on A-frame trusses with unusually-shaped dovetail lap-jointed collars. Interior of
barn shows blocking of large opposing doorways and shippon has plain chamfered
crossbeams and some reused C17 roof members in the present late C19 - early C20
roof. Interesting and well preserved single phase farmhouse.

Listing NGR: SS7567008794

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26542405

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

• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)