Description

FEN DITTON

219/18/12 HIGH DITCH ROAD
22-AUG-1984 (North side)
25
Home Farmhouse

II*
Farmhouse and attached outbuilding, formerly a service range. Early C17, with C18 and C19 additions and alterations, refurbished 2006.

MATERIAL: Timber-framed construction, the framing later encased in C19 Gault brick. Banded plain tile roof covering with rebuilt central ridge stack and added gable stack at east end. Secondary stacks to rear C19 range and to side of advanced gable to street frontage.

PLAN: 3-cell lobby entrance plan with advanced wing to south-east, with linked parallel service range to rear, and added C19 former dairy to rear wall of house.

EXTERIOR: House south front of 2 storeys of 4 bays, with advanced gabled bay to east end, and C20 gabled porch enclosing original doorway. 3 first floor multi-pane windows are horizontal sashes, and an 8 over 8 pane sliding sash to the ground floor to the right of the doorway. Further right, a horizontal sliding sash window to the ground floor of the advanced gable. East gable with massive brick stack added to gable face, and of stepped profile on north side. Rear elevation with multi-pane horizontal sliding sashes to ground and first floor openings of main range, and single 6 over 6 pane sash frames to each floor of C19 extension to rear. C20 part-glazed porch to east end, and C19 lean-to in the angle of the main range and C19 wing to west end. West gable with 2 ground floor window openings now with C20 cross frames.

INTERIOR: Lobby entrance to west giving access to central hall, heated parlour to west and service bay including advanced gabled wing to east end. The majority of rooms are enhanced by early C17 panelling and carved enrichment. The former central hall and parlour have back-to back fireplaces, with the main stair rising against the rear wall behind the hearths. The west parlour has an axial beam encased in boarding incised with lozenge decoration and supported on a fluted pilaster with an Ionic capital at the west end. The room is fitted with run-through panelling incorporating a frieze with lozenge decoration. The hearth has a richly carved overmantle, and is flanked by pilasters with Ionic capitals. A corner cupboard with glazed doors was added in the C19. The central hall has partially-re-set run through-panelling with dado panels incised with lozenge pattern and floral decoration. The overmantle to the hearth has re-set C16 style linenfold panels and end medallions with Renaissance style heads. The east end room, originally unheated has a chamfered axial beam. The main stair is of splat baluster form, the balusters being pierced and tapered. All of the upper floor rooms to the C17 range are panelled, and the east and west end rooms have fireplaces with iron grates, that to the east end with Delft tiles.
Outbuilding to rear with plain tile roof covering, partial survival of thin scantling timber-framing to western half, elsewhere replaced in brick externally. South elevation with 3 doorways, plank doors, and at the east end, a 12-pane window, and a projecting oven structure at the south-west corner. INTERIOR: Lofted west section with stud partitions and wattle and daub infill panels. West end with substantial end wall hearth, 2 coppers and a bread oven.

Forms a group with the Dovecote and Granary to Home farm (q.v.) Mulberry House (q.v.) and Manor Farmhouse (q.v.).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
Home Farmhouse, No. 25 High Ditch Road, Fen Ditton is listed in Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

* The house is a well-preserved early C17 vernacular house in which all phases of its evolution may be clearly read in surviving historic fabric.

* The house retains a little-disturbed early C17 3-cell lobby entrance plan.

* The interior of the house contains a high proportion of contemporary early C17 fittings, including re-used C16 panelling and an early C17 closed string splat baluster stair, and which are represented in almost every part of the house.

* The survival of a linked service range of C18 date, originally fully of timber-framed form, and containing a substantial hearth, integral bread oven and coppers which may represent the continuation of a detached kitchen tradition, which thus enhances the special interest of the dwelling it served.

SOURCES
Bibliography
5443 (Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England), An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Cambridgeshire North East, 1972, Vol 2, Page(s) 62

Listing NGR: TL4876260165

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17550897

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

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings