Description

LUPPITT
ST 10 NE
6/54 Mountstephens Farmhouse including
- outbuildings adjoining to north-
west
- II
Farmhouse. C17, origins, enlarged and much rebuilt in the mid - late C18, C19 front
block and rear outbuildings, modernised in 1987. Local stone and flint rubble, the
front is plastered with sections lightly incised as ashlar; stone rubble stacks with
stone rubble chimneyshafts; concrete tile roof (formerly thatch).
Plan and development: the house has an L-plan. The main block faces south-west and
it has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan but not the late medieval model. At the
right (north-east) end there is a parlour with a gable-end stack with a winder stair
alongside. The other side of the passage is the dining room and this has been
enlarged by removing the passage partition this side. This dining room has a large
axial stack backing onto the kitchen at the left (south-west) end which has a
projecting rear lateral stack. An unheated 1-room plan service wing (now used as
the kitchen) projects at right angles in front of the former kitchen.
Although much of the C17 house was rebuilt in the C19 it seems that the original
house had a 2-room plan and occupied the parlour and dining room. In the C17 the
dining room was the kitchen. In the C18 a new kitchen was built and in the C19 the
service wing was added. House is 2 storeys.
Exterior: the main block has a symmetrical 3-window front of C19 and C20 casements,
the latest are iron-framed and without glazing bars. These are arranged around the
former passage front doorway which contains C20 double doors behind a contemporary
glass-walled porch. The main roof is gable-ended to right and hipped to left. The
gable-end of the service wing contains an introduced C19 French window. The rear of
the main block includes older windows and one of these contains rectangular panes of
leaded glass. The former passage rear doorway has a C19 porch with cusped
bargeboards and contains a 6-panel door.
Interior: the right end room, the parlour, has a stone fireplace with reused
chamfered oak lintel and alongside is an C18 cupboard with fieled panel doors on H-L
hinges. The central dining room has a large fireplace from the C17 kitchen, it is
stone with a plain oak lintel and the back shows the blocked openings of a disused
oven, curing chamber and ash pit. The left end room, the C18 kitchen, has a stone
fireplace with chamfered oak lintel and there is a large oven housing and remains of
a walk-in curing chamber projecting to rear. This room has a C17 chamfered and
step-stopped crossbeam, presumably it is reused. The roof over the main block is
C18 but employs unusually sophisticated carpentry for the time; it is carried on tie
beam trusses with pegged and spiked lap-jointed collars, staggered butt purlins with
tusk tenons and includes carpenters assembly marks. The service wing has plain C19
carpentry.
A C19 gable-ended dairy with cheese left over is connected to the back of the
kitchen by a single storey outshot. The cheeseloft is gained by an external flight
of stone steps in the rear end wall.

Listing NGR: ST1653806916

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26618403

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

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability