Description

OTTERFORD

1770/8/38 LOWER WHATLEY FARMHOUSE
18-DEC-86

GV II

Farmhouse. Circa C15; reputed to be possibly earlier [SVBRG]. Random rubble chert stone. Gable-ended roof with Bridgwater clay tiles re-clad at front in corrugated-iron sheets. Stone axial and gable-end stacks with later brick shafts.
PLAN: 3-room and through-passage plan, lower end to right [east]; originally the 2-bay hall and lower end were open to the roof and the hall was heated by an open hearth fire; unheated inner room at left [west] end with chamber above, a closed truss separating it from the hall. Circa late C16 or early C17 axial stack built at low end of hall, backing onto through-passage and floor inserted into hall and lower end, which became the kitchen with a gable-end fireplace. Circa C18 or early C19 an outshut was built behind the kitchen which was partitioned axially. Later in the C19 a smaller outshut was added to rear of hall and a porch was built to the though-passage front doorway.
EXTERIOR: 1 storey and attic. Asymmetrical 3-window south front; various C19 and C20 3-light casements with glazing bars, two attic windows in dormers at eaves level; through-passage doorway to right of centre with late C16-early C17 chamfered timber Tudor arch frame and studded plank door with wrought-iron strap hinges and C19 gabled stone porch with round arch. Small slit opening in right [east] gable end. At rear [north] main roof carried down as catslide over outshut in angle on right; west gable end rendered.
INTERIOR: Through-passage with plank-and-muntin screen on lower right side with chamfered Tudor arch doorway to former kitchen. Kitchen has deeply chamfered cross-beams with large step stops and large fireplace with chamfered timber bressumer and blocked oven. Doorway from through-passage to hall has chamfered Tudor arch frame. Hall has deeply chamfered cross-beams stopped at centre as if for framed ceiling, large fireplace with chamfered timber bressumer with keel stops and bench at high end with later C17 panelled back. Inner room has chamfered half-beams with step stops, small brick fireplace and 2-panel door to hall made from three planks; similar door above from hall chamber to inner room chamber. Winder stairs at lower end of hall made from solid baulks of timber. Hall chamber has late C19 cast-iron chimneypiece. Closed truss between hall and inner room smoke-blackened on hall side and with trangular block in apex and apex trenched for square-set ridgepiece of which only fragment survives. Full cruck truss at lower end of hall, cranked at wall-plate level, partly buried in inserted stack and with triangular block in apex which is trenched for square-set ridgepiece. Smoke-blackened purlin on north side of hall continues over low end at rear, where it has been truncated. Low end truss replaced circa C18 has principals crossed at apex. Original common-rafters, south purlin and most of ridgepiece replaced.
An interesting late Medieval vernacular house remodelled in circa late C16 or early C17, extended in C18 and C19 and little altered since.

Listing NGR: ST2479713146

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26594052

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

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6