Description

DIPTFORD
SX75NE Ashwell including garden
5/185 area wall and mounting
block adjoining S

GV II

Farmhouse, now a private house. Probably late C16 or early C17 remodelled
and extended in circa early C19. Slate rubble. Slate hung above first
floor window lintel level. Scantle slate roof with gabled ends; early
crested ridge tiles over the rear wing. Projecting slate hung stack with
set-offs at left hand end; axial stack to right of centre with slate rubble
shaft heightened in brick; very large slate rubble stack at gable end of
wing.
Plan: 3 room and passage plan facing south. The hall heated from an axial
stack backing onto the passage and the inner room to the left heated from a
gable end stack. The lower end to the right has been demolished and the
passage widened to form an unheated room with a cheese room above. This
was probably part of a circa early C19 remodelling which included raising
the roof to a full 2 storeys and the addition of a wide 1-room plan kitchen
wing with a gable end stack at the back of the hall. The back of the inner
room was partitioned to form a pantry with access from the kitchen which
overlaps the inner room. The main staircase is also part of the early C19
remodelling; it is a straight staircase behind and against the rear wall of
the former hall and rises from a short passage between the hall and the
kitchen. A second staircase also against the back wall of the former hall
rises from the kitchen to the servants chamber over the kitchen which has
no first floor access to the main range. An aspect of the plan difficult
to explain is the circa late C16 or early C17 roof truss over the inner
room which is situated laterally to the main range suggesting that the
original house was on a north-south axis or the left end of the house had a
cross-wing or rear wing.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Regular but not symmetrical 3-window range. All
early C19 casements with glazing bars three lights on the first floor and
ground floor left, four lights to the ground floor centre and a small
single light window just above the first floor at the right hand end. The
right hand end of the ground floor is recessed to form a porch with a slate
rubble side wall, and the right hand corner is open the first floor above
is supported on a circular slate rubble pier; a wide flight slate steps up
to the doorway which has a C20 glazed door.
Rear elevation: a wide gable-ended wing to right with large gable end
stack; in the angle to the left along the left hand side of the wing and
across the black of the main range a circa early C19 pentice roof over the
ground floor with scantle slates. On the first floor of the main range an
early C19 2-light window with leaded panes, its lintel has painted
lettering "Cheese Room". The other windows at the rear are early C19
casements with glazing bars. The doors are also early C19 and flush
panelled.
At the right hand end of the house set back is a former barn rebuilt as a
separate dwelling; it is built of rendered stone and has a slate roof.
Interior; Hall has a large axial fireplace with an unchamfered timber
lintel which may have originally be chamfered, and with chamfered slate
jambs and a day oven with its original clay floor with 2 jug-like handles.
Various C18 and early C19 panelled doors, some fielded panel doors. Early
C19 panelled window shutters. Inner room has a late C19 single wooden
chimney piece and grate. All the ground floor room ceilings are plastered.
Kitchen fireplace is blocked but has large C19 moulded wooden architrave.
First floor has many fielded 2-panel doors and one with original drop
handle; a hanging cupboard with fielded 6-panel double doors and drawers
below, and a chimneypiece with moulded shelf. Servants room over rear wing
has small moulded wooden chimneypiece.
Roof: the collars are lapped and pegged to the faces of the principals
which are halved and pegged at the apexes. There is one earlier truss at
the left hand end of this main range which is situated laterally; it has
principals with a morticed ridge and collar and mortices for threaded
purlins; there is no ridge-piece and the truss is clean.
Including a garden area wall to the south front; a low slate rubble wall
with quartz rubble capping and with a mounting block by the gateway on the
south side.

Listing NGR: SX7637755383

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26610572

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy