Description

DIPTFORD
SX75NW
4/203 Combeshead Farmhouse
including garden area wall
adjoining north

GV II

Farmhouse and adjoining wall. Circa early C17, rearranged and remodelled in
circa early C19 and little altered since. Slate rubble, slate hung left hand
gable end. Grouted and slurried scantle slate roof, the left end gabled, the
right end hipped. Circa C17 crested ridge tiles. Slate hung chimney stack
at left gable end and large slate rubble projecting rear lateral stack with
set-offs and massive shaft heightened in red brick in late C19 or C20.
Plan: the original early C17 house facing south was probably 2 storeys with
2 rooms and a central through passage. The parlour to the left (west) heated
from an end stack; the larger hall/kitchen to the right (now centre) heated
from a rear lateral stack. The central through passage has an open fronted
porch and adjoining to the left side of which there is a newel stair turret
in front of the parlour. In the early C19 the house was remodelled and turned
back to front, the through passage widened and a framed staircase inserted
into what became the back of the new stairhall blocking the newel stairs; the
parlour was partitioned forming a small parlour and a small unheated room.
At the lower right hand east end an addition was built, partitioned to form
a dairy at the new front and a cellar behind and with a cross-passage
separating them from the original lower end of the house. Part of the
original lower east end wall was demolished and a new partition inserted
taking a little space out of the hall. An outshut was added at the new front
(north) of this lower end passage and a low wall was built forming a small
garden area in front of the house.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical south front with 4 first floor windows not
aligned over the 3 ground floor windows. All circa early C20 3-light
casements with glazing bars and slate cills except for the hall window to the
right of centre which is a longer 4-light window and the right hand windows
on both floors which are 2-light casements. The doorway to left of centre has
a slate rubble open-fronted porch with a slate lean-to roof. Adjoining to the
left of the porch a rectangular projecting stair turret over which the main
roof is carried down and with very small window below eaves. C20 concrete
block lateral chimney shaft to right of front.
The rear (north) has circa early C20 2-light casements with slate cills,
disposed towards the right, 3 on first floor, 2 on the ground floor either
side of C20 glazed door in the original rear doorway. To the left of centre
a large projecting lateral chimney stack with slate weathered set-offs; and
to the left of the stack a narrow but deep later lean-to outshut with a small
gable ended outbuilding in its left hand angle. At the far right end a
rendered taking buttress. The slate weathering survives for a pentice roof
which has been removed from above the doorway and ground floor windows.
Including the lower slate rubble garden area wall which is integral with the
outshut on the left, continues along the front of the house and returns to the
right of the doorway; presumably added with the outshut.
Interior: Little altered since Cl9 with panelled and plank doors and
plastered ceilings. The cross-beam in the parlour is chamfered with hollow
step stops. Hall ceiling is plastered over. Hall has rear lateral fireplace
which has been blocked with a C20 grate. The early C19 stairhall has circa
early C19 fielded panel doors to hall and parlour and an early C19 framed open
well staircase at the back of the stairhall with stick balusters, square
newels, moulded handrail and closed string.
Roof: C19 or C20 nailed softwood trusses.
The house is situated at the head of a coombe, on slate bedrock. The original
front faces south where the ground level drops sharply in front of the small
front garden. At the west parlour end of the house the ground is also much
lower and at the east kitchen end the ground slopes away down the valley. The
ground at the back (north) is higher; the north became the new front of the
house in the early C19 and faces the farm buildings (qv) which were probably
built at the same time in the early C19.

Listing NGR: SX7451855504

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26610594

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

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)