Description

BONDLEIGH BONDLEIGH
SS 60 SE
6/14 Bondleigh Barton
GV II*

Farmhouse. Circa early C16 with C17 alterations. Plastered cob walls, rendered at
rear. Gable ended thatched roof. 4 stacks - brick stack at each gable end, 2 axial
brick stacks close together, left-hand one has stone base.
Plan: The house has a 4 room-and-through-passage plan rather than the more typical 3
rooms and even more unusually it has always been the same length. The original
disposition of the rooms is more uncertain but there was certainly an open hall,
probably at the left end of the house judging from the heaviest degree of smoke-
blackening, and the partition were initially only of head height as the smoke-
blackening extends in a lessening degree to the other end of the roof. The process
of flooring the house may have taken place at different stages which might also
account for the varying degree of smoke-blackening in which case the large kitchen
at the left-hand end would have been left open to the roof longest. This might
account for why it is positioned at the opposite end of the house to the passage
rather than in the more customary position immediately adjoining as its lower side.
In fact the 'higher' end of the house was definately reserved for service purposes
as there is also a dairy inbetween the hall and the kitchen with a short passage
behind. Conversely the room at the lower side of the passage is of noticeably
higher status and probably functioned as a parlour. Both this room and the hall had
axial stacks inserted backing onto the passage. The kitchen has a large gable end
cob stack.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front of small-paned early C20
casements, 2-light on 1st floor, 3-light on ground floor. The lst floor windows
have raised 'eyebrows' in the thatch above with decorative bargeboards. Towards
right-hand end in early C19 6 panel door at front of passage. Rear elevation is
windowless apart from 2 inserted C20 windows at right-hand end on ground and first
floor. According to present occupants a wood mullion window exists behind the
render on ground floor to left of centre.
Interior: is very unaltered. The kitchen has a large open fireplace with chamfered
wooden lintel forming depessed 4-centred arch. 2 ovens in left-hand side. This
room has a longitudial chamfered beam with run-out stops. The dairy adjoining it
has a door with ventilation slats which are moveable. The hall has a central
chamfered cross beam with hollow step stops and 2 similar half beams. Large open
fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and elongated pyramid stops. Early C19 wall
cupboard in higher end wall with panelled doors. Both the passage and the lower
room/parlour have similar heavy cross beams. The latter has a smaller fireplace
with a similarly finished wooden lintel.
The original roof survives virtually complete from end to end in 7 bays of open
trusses. Apart from a section at the centre the original rafters and smoke-
blackened thatch are also preserved. The smoke-blackening is heaviest over the
left-hand end and then gradually gets lighter; the right-hand end truss is hardly
blackened but the thatch and rafters above it are so it may be an insertion. The
form of the truss is the same throughout: substantial straight principals, collars
halved on with notched joints, some cranked, and trenched purlins.
The importance of this house is twofold; it preserves a variety of good features -
notably a complete original roof structure, and it also has an unusual plan
interesting both as a sizeable medieval house and for the form the C17 remodelling
took. The house makes an attractive group with the nearby Church (q.v).

Listing NGR: SS6512504792

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537663

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 Care and Repair
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments