Description

TQ 53 NW SPELDHURST STATION ROAD, ASHURST

7/591 Linkhorns Farmhouse
19.8.82
II

Former farmhouse. Late medieval, probably early C16, with late C16/early C17
improvement, modernised and enlarged circa 1986. Timber-framed on coursed
sandstone footings. Framing exposed on the ground floor and hung with peg-
tile above. Brick stacks, parlour stack on coursed sandstone base, brick
chimneyshafts. Peg-tile roof.

Plan: L-plan house. Main block faces south. To right (east) is a parlour
with a large projecting gable-end stack. Left is a 3-room plan crosswing.
Small front room is an unheated service room with the chamber above jettied
forward. Behind it the hall and at the rear end a circa 1986 extension.
Axial stack between the two.

The front 2-room section of the crosswing is the earliest part and was built
as a late medieval 2-cell open hall house. Service room originally divided
into 2 smaller rooms with end-jettied chamber (stair in the same position it
is today) and one bay hall open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire.
There may have been a third medieval room but, if so, it had been demolished
and the circa 1986 extension covers up any evidence of an earlier building
there. Parlour added off the service end in the late C16/early C17. Hall was
floored over about the same time. Hall stack of uncertain date.

2 storeys with attics in the roofspace and secondary lean-to outshots to rear
of the parlour.

Exterior: irregular 4-window front of various C20 casements, some without
glazing bars, others with leaded glass either rectangular or diamond pane.
Roughly central doorway (direct entry into the prlour) contains C19 plank door
with coverstrips behind a C20 gabled porch. Service end jetty to left on
exposed joists. The left (west) end wall has an irregular 4-window front of
C20 casements without glazing bars. The front (southern) 2-bay section has
exposed original framing at ground floor level in the same style as the front
end. Main roof on the front is gable-ended to right and hipped to left.
Crosswing roof a little taller than the parlour roof.

Interior: Early framed structure is well-preserved. The late medieval 2-cell
section has original framed walls including the crosswalls. Large scantling
axial joists in the service room. Mortises along the soffit of the centre
joists show that this room was originally divided into two. One-bay roof over
the hall of plain crown post construction between closed trusses. The A-frame
common rafter trusses (lap-jointed collars), the collar purlin and the
plastered walls each end are heavily smoke-blackened from the original open
hearth fire. The crown purlin over the service end has been cut off to
accommodate a late C16/early C17 hip which was built with the parlour roof.
Hall crossbeam is late C16/early C17; chamfered with canted step stops. The
fireplace here has been rebuilt. Late C16/early C17 parlour has good
intersecting beam 4-panel ceiling. Beams and joists are chamfered with step
stops. Large brick fireplace has an oak-framed front with chamfered surround;
unusual but probably late C16/early C17.

Linkhorns is an attractive and well-preserved farmhouse. Late medieval one-
bay halls are not common and if it was only a 2-cell house then that is a very
rare survival.

Listing NGR: TQ5083238627

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26551443

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

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)