Description

AXMINSTER

9/0/10004 WYKE LANE
28-MAY-05 Higher Wyke Farmhouse

II
Farmhouse, no longer in use. Circa early-mid C17 reconstruction and enlargement of an earlier house; remodelled circa early C19. Remains of cob walls, reconstructed in stone rubble with dressed stone quoins and footings. Gable-ended roofs, formerly thatched, reclad in corrugated-iron sheets. Gable-end stone stack with short brick shaft and truncated stone lateral stack.
PLAN: 3-room-and-through-passage plan; the through-passage between the parlour on the right [E] with a fireplace in a gable-end stack and the centre bay unheated and formerly divided by an axial partition forming two unheated service rooms with doorways to the kitchen at the left [W] end; the kitchen is heated from a large fireplace in a lateral stack at the back with an oven; behind the kitchen there is wing, now truncated and of 1-room plan with direct entry on the west side. The house was remodelled in about the early C19, when an axial partition was inserted into the parlour at the east end, the roof above was raised and reconstructed and an outshut was built at the west end. The partitions of the unheated central room have been removed.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3-window south front; C19 2- and 3-light casements and through-passage doorway to right of centre with plank door. East gable end has large stack projecting on right. Rear north elevation has through-passage doorway at centre with heavy chamfered timber frame with Tudor arch head with mason's mitres and plank door, 2-light chamfered timber window to right with mason's mitres and cob wall above with single light chamfered timber window frame with carpenter's mitres; blind stone wall to left and truncated wing on right with exposed stud and wattle-and-daub first floor wall above later rubble wall to ground floor; west side of wing has doorway with heavy chamfered timber frame with Tudor arch and plank door and large outshut to right with lean-to roof.
INTERIOR with very little alteration since the C19 and with stone flag floors throughout. Parlour at east end has deeply chamfered cross-beam, the ends replaced, broad joists [ceiled] and blocked fireplace on end wall; inserted axial stone rubble wall creating smaller back room with early C19 cupboard with panelled door. Through-passage has remains of plank-and-muntin screen on east side and head-beam of plank-and-muntin screen on west side. Unheated central bay with remains of plank-and-muntin screen on west side with evidence for two doorways, the central axial partition removed. The lower west room [kitchen] has deeply chamfered cross-beams, one with hollow step stops and large lateral fireplace with dressed stone jambs and rough cambered bressumer and oven. Room in rear wing has chamfered cross-beam with hollow-step stop at one end and broad joists. Attic chambers ceiled; west chamber has small fireplace in lateral stack with chamfered cambered bressumer and doorway to rear wing on right with chamfered wooden frame with cambered head. Main range has 2- 3-bay roof with three side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with mortice-and-tenoned cambered collars, two tiers of trenched purlins and diagonally-set trenched ridgepiece, west end truss partly rebuilt and collar removed, east end bay roof raised and rebuilt with straight principals; similar C17 jointed cruck truss roof over rear wing; common-rafters largely intact with some battens remaining.
The early-mid C17 reconstruction is a good example of a unheated central room plan house, remodelled in about the early C19 and little altered since.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26670150

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)