Description

ST 00 NW KENTISBEARE
7/79 Lower Kingsford Farmhouse
-
II
Farmhouse. Probably late C15, altered and enlarged in the late C16 or C17, with C19
and late C20 modifications. Roughcast cob on stone footings; slate roof, gable
ended to left, hipped to right.
Pl.an: the exact arrangement of the original house is not certain for it has been
substantially altered. It was probably a 3-room, cross passage plan house of which
the hall and inner room survive. The 3 bay hall was open to the roof, which
contains smoke-blackened timbers, but the inner room (to the right of the hall)
appears always to have been of 2 storeys. The house was remodelled in the C17 when
a first floor was inserted in the hall, and a rear wing was built, along with a
stair turret in the junction formed by the wing and the main ranges. It may have
been at this time that the service end was demolished, although the present left-
hand end wall and fireplace look later, and the rear wing projects a little to the
lower end of it strongly suggesting an even later contraction of the building. Left
hand end stack, and a now redundant axial stack between hall and inner room. 2
storeys.
Exterior Front: 4 window range, all casements to both floors are late C20. A small
fire window survives to the extreme left-hand side of the range. 2 C20 casement
windows to right hand end. Rear: with outshut; one early, probably C17, small 2-
light window (now concealed by outshut) with chamfered surround and mullion. Later
casement set in early embrasure lights stair turret. Rear wing: C20 casement
windows throughout, those to the ground floor, outer face of the wing, in C17
embrasures.
Interior: the original hall appears to have been divided into 2 rooms in the C17
(when the ceiling was inserted), although it is again now a single room; one cross
ceiling beam, boxed, marks the division; to its left (lower end) 2 and one half
axial beams, chamfered with hollow step stops. End fireplace with roughly chamfered
lintel, and unchamfered jambs. Remains of a plank and muntin screen survive between
the hall and inner room, to the right of the inserted stack, with 2 unchamfered but
arched jambs of a doorway no longer in situ. The screen, however, is morticed into
a jointed cruck truss, and forms the lower part of a partition which rises to the
apex of the roof.
One cross ceiling beam to rear wing, chamfered with hollow step stops.
Roof: jointed cruck construction. Hall of 3 bays; the right hand (higher end) was
closed, and is heavily sooted on hall side only. 2 other trusses survive and a
third (at the lower end) possibly embedded in the present end wall, or removed
entirely. Crucks with unchamfered arched braces and cranked collars, 3 sets of
threaded purlins, the apex with a yoke, the ridge piece threaded. (The present
occupier describes features, removed about 35 years ago, that sound as if they may
have been corbels; certainly there is evidence of there having been some fixture at
the point where corbels would be expected, now planed away, ie. at the jointed elbow
of the cruck).

Listing NGR: ST0447109108

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26593180

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)