Description

TQ 64 NW CAPEL POSTERN LANE, TUDELEY

1/276 Upper Postern Farmhouse

20.10.54
II*

Farmhouse. Early C18, some C19 modernisation. Half basement is Flemish bond
red brick with burnt headers, timber-framed above and tile hung; brick stacks
and chimneyshafts; peg-tile roof.

Plan: The farmhouse faces north. It has a 2-room plan with central entrance
hall containing a dogleg stair. Both rooms have rear lateral stacks.
Integral outshots give the half basement and ground floor levels a 4-room
plan. Original kitchen in the half basement front left (east). Service
doorway in left end to kitchen with original porch. Ground floor rear rooms
originally under sloping outshot roof but the right rear room there improved
in C19 with its own crossroof.

2 storeys with half basement below and attics in the roofspace and integral
service outshots to rear.

Exterior: Tall house with symmetrical 3-window front of C19 and C20 casements
with glazing bars. Central front doorway up a flight of 6 stone steps. It
has its original bead-moulded doorframe, fielded 6-panel door and flat hood.
Side lights have replacement glazing bars. Moulded timber eaves cornice and
the tall and steeply pitched roof is half-hipped to left and gable-ended to
right and contains 3 front dormer windows with hipped roofs. The right (west)
end wall contains a C20 bay window to the ground floor front room. The left
end wall has a doorway into the kitchen (original bead-moulded frame and
fielded 3-panel door) behind an original brick porch. This contains a bench
round 2 sides, presumably where farm workers could sit and eat without coming
into the house. To rear the main roof is carried down over the outshots and
here are original flat-faced mullion windows and the back door contains an
old, if not original, plank door. First floor west outshot room was built up
in the C19 with its own hipped roof and contains a rear-facing C19 4-pane
sash. Alongside, to right of, the back door there is a curious relieving arch
just above ground level. It is believed to be part of a well housing. The
brickwork of the left (east) end wall has some interesting graffiti; a series
of C18 initials with C18 dates, the earliest is GW 1727.

Interior: Well-preserved with a great deal of original carpentry and joinery
details. Most of the rooms, including the principal ground floor rooms have
chamfered axial beams with scroll stops. The original joinery includes a good
dogleg stair (square newel posts, closed string, moulded flat handrail and
turned, vase-shaped balusters), fielded 2-panel doors, cupboards and the like.

Upper Postern is an attractive and well-preserved example of polite
architecture at yeoman farmer level.

Listing NGR: TQ6153746065

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547568

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6