Description

ST 01 NE
5/86

HOLCOMBE ROGUS
Buehills Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements; major late C19
modernisation involved a partial internal rearrangement and new service extension.
Plastered stone rubble with sections of cob; stone rubble stacks, the hall one with
a stone rubble chimneyshaft the rest topped with C19 and C20 brick; slate roof,
formerly thatch.
Plan and development: long building facing south-west with a 6-room-and-through-
passage plan. At the left (north-western) end is the inner room with a projecting
rear lateral stack. The hall also has a projecting rear lateral stack. It is
smaller than it was originally. In the C19 a new main stair was inserted into the
lower end. Between this and the passage is a small unheated room, probably a dairy
originally. Below the passage is a kitchen with a large axial stack backing onto
the fifth room at the right end. This and the sixth end room is a late C19 service
extension and it has a gable end stack.
The original mid C16 house had a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. However only the
inner room had a chamber over at this time. The rest of the house was open to the
roof and divided by low partitions. It was also heated by an open hearth fire which
sooted the roof timbers. Through the later C16 and C17 the chimneyshafts were
inserted and the whole house progressively floored over. The service end was
rebuilt as a kitchen in the mid C17.
The house is 2 storeys throughout and the C19 service extension has a cellar under.
Exterior: irregular 4-window front of C19 casements with glazing bars to the main
part of the house all with C19 flat stucco eared architraves; there is another
similar with segmental arch over on the service extension. The front doorway is
near the centre and contains a C19 6-panel door and gabled porch. This is the
doorway inserted into the former hall. The original passage front doorway is now
blocked. The roof is gable-ended and drops in level from the main house to the
extension. The passage rear doorway has a solid oak frame under a C19 or C20
architraves. The door is C20. There is a stone mounting block to the left of it.
Interior: is largely the result of the C19 modernisation but in the main block the
original layout is well-preserved and enough C16 and C17 carpentry is exposed to
suggest that the modernisation was essentially superficial. No carpentry detail is
exposed in the inner room and hall and both fireplaces are blocked by C19 grates.
Inside the small dairy a small section of a C16 or C17 oak plank-and-muntin screen
shows forming a corridor between the passage and hall. The passage lower side has
a section of a late C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen containing a Tudor arch doorway
exposed in the kitchen. The kitchen has a large fireplace with a replacement oak
lintel. In the back of the fireplace is the blocked doorway from a disused oven and
to left there is a C19 cloam oven. The ceiling beams here are an odd arrangement of
soffit-chamfered beams containing variously step, roll and scroll stops. There is
another oak plank-and-muntin screen on the first floor over the passage lower
screen. The main block roof is carried on a series of side-pegged jointed crucks.
The partition between hall and inner room chambers is not a closed truss but it is
original, since the inner room side and roof structure beyond is clean whereas the
hall side and rest of the roof is smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. One
confusing feature in the roof is the positions of the only two late C16 or C17 oak
framed partitions which show in the roofspace. They are positioned either side of
the C19 stairwell.

Listing NGR: ST0556118819

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611419

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy