Thrubwell Farm, Nempnett Thrubwell, Bath and North East Somerset

Description

NEMPNETT THRUBWELL

1763/0/10010 THRUBWELL LANE
11-MAY-09 (East,off)
Thrubwell Farm

GV II
A farmstead, dating from the later C18 or earlier C19. The group includes a FARMHOUSE, BARN, STABLES, CIDER HOUSE, and detached GRANARY and LIVESTOCK HOUSE.

MATERIALS: All the buildings are of local stone, with red clay tile roofs, except for the granary which is roofed in slate.

PLAN: The agricultural buildings, apart from the granary and livestock house, are set around two sides of a courtyard, with a third side now occupied by a modern agricultural building. The granary is set towards the east of the yard. The livestock house is situated to the south-east of the courtyard. To the east of the site, adjacent to the access from Thrubwell Lane, is a former wagon house, now roofless. There are a number of modern agricultural buildings to the east of the historic buildings which are not of special interest.

HOUSE: The house is situated towards the south of the site, orientated east-west, with its main elevation to the south. The plan is two-roomed, with a central through-passage, single depth, with a deep rear outshut, and a single-storey range to the east. To the west is an attached poultry house. The main range dates from the C18.
EXTERIOR: The house is double-fronted, the central entrance doorway with a pitched-roofed porch flanked by pairs of six-over-six paned sash windows in segmental-arched openings with slightly projecting keystones. There are brick gable-end stacks to both ends of the main range, and two dormers with hipped gables and two-light casements. The rear outshut appears to have been built in two phases, and has a long catslide roof, with windows of various dates to either end.
INTERIOR: The interior retains much of its original layout, with principal rooms to either side of an entrance hall, one with a mid-C19 fireplace. A number of C18 doors and doorcases remain in the main range. The outshut to the rear contains a dairy with a timber lattice-work partition to the rear corridor, and the stair is now located in this part of the house. There is at least one chamfered spine beam with runout stops. The single-storey range to the east houses a kitchen and scullery. The kitchen has a large, C19 range and bread oven, and the scullery retains its copper boiler in a brick housing. The first floor has bedrooms in both the main range and the outshut, with a stair to the attic floor in the main range. The attic is ceiled and whitewashed, and was probably used at least in part as a cheese room. The visible portions of the roof structure show trusses formed from paired principal rafters with trenched purlins.

AGRICULTURAL BUILDINGS: These form a group to the north-east of the house, and range in date from the later C18 to the earlier C19. They form two sides of a courtyard, the third side now occupied by a modern barn within which the remains of the eastern range of the earlier buildings are now enclosed. All the historic agricultural buildings have rubble stone elevations under pitched, tiled roofs. To the western range is a CIDER HOUSE, adjoining the south of an L-shaped STABLE building which has a timber ceiling for a hayloft and retains a mixture of timber and concrete block partitions. Attached to the east gable end is the northern range. This 10-bay BARN is a multi-purpose agricultural building: the western end has timber partitions for storage, while the eastern gable end has a full-height, full-width doorway with timber double doors to allow access for the loading and storage of wagons. There are small, square-shuttered openings set under the eaves along the rear of the range, and a single doorway to the front. The roof trusses are simple A-frames formed from lapped principal rafters and a high collar, with a small yoke; there are twin trenched purlins. The barn has a modern lean-to at the rear, replacing an earlier structure which may have housed a horse engine. Towards the eastern side of the yard is a detached GRANARY, probably dating from the C18, with a raised ground floor approached by stone steps. This retains its half-height timber partitions creating grain bins to either side of a central walkway, and has roof trusses of tie-beam, queen struts and threaded purlins. Detached and set to the south-east of the farmyard is a C19 LIVESTOCK HOUSE, with openings facing away from the yard towards open fields.

HISTORY: The farmstead appears from the stylistic evidence of the house to have originated in the later C18 as a dairy farm, and to have undergone some extension and alteration during the earlier C19. Modern farm buildings were added during the C20 to the eastern side, replacing an earlier range which is included, along with all the existing stone agricultural buildings and the house, on the Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1885. The footprint of the house has remained unchanged since this date, and the layout of the remaining agricultural buildings is little altered.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Thrubwell Farm is designated in Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The farm house is a substantial building with some architectural pretension, dating from the later C18, and retaining significant features from this period
* Although there have been some alterations in the C19, these demonstrate the evolution of the building and add to its special interest
* It retains evidence of food-production processes carried on at the farm, including a dairy and probable attic cheese room
* The farm buildings, dating from the later C18 and earlier C19, form a cogent functional grouping whose uses and relationships are clearly legible

Reasons for Listing

The house and historic farm buildings at Thrubwell Farm have been designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The farm house is a substantial building with some architectural pretension, dating from the later C18, and retaining significant features from this period
* Although there have been some alterations in the C19, these demonstrate the evolution of the building and add to its special interest
* It retains evidence of food-production processes carried on at the farm, including a dairy and probable attic cheese room
* The farm buildings, dating from the later C18 and earlier C19, form a cogent functional grouping whose uses and relationships are clearly legible

External Links

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