Mill House, Tytherington, South Gloucestershire

Summary

A C16 farmhouse, altered and extended in the early C17- C19, and later. Containing the remains of high status C17 interior plasterwork and a high proportion of historic fabric relating to the residence and workplace of a yeoman tenant farmer.

Description

A farmhouse of late-C16 date, altered and extended in the early-to-mid-C17, late C17 and C18. Further alterations were made in the C19-C21.

MATERIALS: local limestone with oak and elm floor and roof structures. The window frames are timber. The elevations and stacks are rendered and there is some brick infill. The roofs are covered in recenty laid clay pantiles.

PLAN: on a multi-phase U-plan. The earliest part is probably the north end, which is of two storeys with part of the first-floor structure at the north east end removed in 2016. A small first-floor chamber to the east is floored and was formerly accessed by a winder stair in the north wall. The passage and two bays to the south, with inglenook, may be a slightly later phase. The south end of the building and the attached early-C17 cross wing to the south east are two storeys plus attic. Along the north flank is a single-storey outshut converted to a garage. There are other single-storey C19 additions to the rear and south flank the building*.

EXTERIOR: the principal elevation is rendered and faces north-west. The two irregular bays to the left are of two storeys, and the two bays to the right are of two storeys plus attic with the openings progressively smaller to each floor. To the second bay from the left is a door and modern pitched-roofed porch and an eight-light C16/17 timber window to the centre of the ground floor, with chamfered mullions and transoms. Above right is a C16/C17 timber tripartite window with ovolo mouldings and mullions, and transoms. The window to the left is a C19 or C20 casement. There are ovolo windows to the first floor of the two right hand bays, and the central lights have metal casements. The two large window openings to the ground floor have later frames with slender glazing bars. The attic casements are C19 or later. There are three ridge stacks*, all rendered and with two courses of red brick to the top.

Attached to the north flank, a mid-C19 single-storey stone-built outshut has been converted to a garage (with door facing west*) and has a shallow pitch pantile roof and a coursed stone north wall. It extends east to adjoin single-storey outbuildings of earlier date that wrap around to the rear of the main farmhouse and are built of local stone. The rear of the main range has a projecting C16/C17 wing to the right, the earlt-C17 two-storey plus attic cross wing to the left and later infill* with an eclectic range of roof types and heights in between. The right wing has a lower, two-storey pitched roof adjoining the main range, which has been extended and splayed as part of later lower-height* infill. In the gable end is a casement to each floor. There are first-floor openings to the rear wall of the main range and that to the left, close to the junction with the cross wing, is a C16/C17 single-light opening with a stanchion and a metal casement. At attic level in the flank of the wing facing north is an ovolo timber casement that may be relocated from a sealed stair window by the inglenook in the north end wall of the main range. The other elevations of the C17 cross wing have been modified in the C20 and have frames* of this period. The roof has a rendered end stack. Attached to the south flank of the main range is a single-storey outshut*, of mid-C19 origin but extended and altered.

INTERIOR: the main range has exposed first-floor structure with deep chamfered C17 cross beams with run-out stops or scroll stops and substantial square profile joists. The joists in the main range have been partially removed and the cross beam at the south-west end of the building was removed and replaced with an iron-strapped transverse timber in the C19. The floor structures of the south bays were formerly covered in decorative lime plaster, which survives on two beams. That to the first-floor dining chamber survives best with thistle and other floreate designs. That to the ground floor has been partially incorporated into a later inserted inglenook and has been more over painted but with rose emblems clearly visible. The inglenook also has a chamfered bressumer and stands to the south of the passage. Another inglenook is at the north-west end of the building, also incorporating the cross beam with a bressumer inserted below it. At the east end the beam has a carved door head to a former winder stair with a sealed window to the first floor wall, with a timber lintel and cill still in place. Next to the top of the former stair is a late-C16/ early-C17 door with four-centred arch to a small first-floor chamber with exposed purlins and timber lintel to the gable window. There is another four-centred arch door way in the south wall of the main room, above another stop-chamfered cross beam that is embedded in the north side of the central inglenook and supports an inserted timber winder stair. A number of the principal beams in the main range have had repair work. The second floor structure in the south bays has an embedded truncated former truss and tie beam from an earlier roof structure. The roofs are largely C18 and C19 work, although the principal rafters, diagonal ridge piece, some purlins and some common rafters may be early-C17 or earlier, and reused or in situ. The attic roof at the south end has staggered butt purlins with tusk tenons and large timber pegs. The floor is very uneven, possibly due to having carried weaving looms in the past.

The stonework of the south-east end cross wing is not engaged with the main range, which indicates that it is of a different phase. However, its timber floor structure appears to be of C17 date and is more decorative than that in the main range. Fragments of a decorative plaster scheme remains just above first floor level in the south wall, and is possibly of early-C17 date. The north and east ends of the building have been altered with a wide inserted stack and widened openings. The roof has chamfered purlins, rough-hewn common rafters and a diagonal ridge piece, some indicating a pre-C17 date, but the principal rafters and collars are of C19 date. A two-light timber mullion casement in the north wall of the attic has ovolo mouldings and early-C17 fitments.

There are a number of C17 doors and cupboards across the building with fitments and hinges. Some doors have been unhinged in 2016. There are also further fireplaces and openings with timber lintels, C17/C18 elm floorboards, and the attic stair is probably of C18 date. The outbuildings were not inspected.

* Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the marked features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

Mill House (formerly Mill Farm) is probably of late-C16 origin, during which period wealthy landowners in the region began establishing farms employed in the cloth industry in response to the rapid growth of textile production. Mill Farm became the principal cloth producer in the village under the tenancy of the Pullin/ Pullen family, for whom nearby New House Farm (Grade II) is thought to have been built in the early C17. New House became occupied by the Hobbs family and the two farms led Tytherington’s cloth producing industry. During this period trade flourished and Mill Farm appears to have been rebuilt, extended and decorated, in some style, in the early-C17. James Pullin (died 1690), the wealthy yeoman tenant in the mid-C17, carried out a further remodelling of the farm as befitted his desired status as a country gentleman. He was the wealthiest man in the Parish by the time of the Poll Tax of 1673 and some of the high quality decorative plasterwork attributed to this period of affluence remains in the building. The creation of an attic floor above his first-floor dining chamber is also in keeping with the fashions of the period.

However, by the time of James Pullin’s death in the late C17, the small-scale cloth production in the southern part of the county was in decline. During the C18 the farmhouse was adapted to play a more active part in cloth making, the attic space was probably installed with weaving looms, and the roofs were partly rebuilt. Other alterations were made in the C19 and C20 following the further decline of the cloth trade and the change of use of the farm to agriculture. The U-plan arrangement of the historic farmhouse structures is shown on the tithe map of 1839 and to the south of the farmstead are two large ponds connected and fed by a wide watercourse that would have been vital to the local textile industry, and flowed into the Ladden Brook.

The current footprint the building was broadly established by the time of the Ordnance Survey Map of 1881. Following the construction of a new farmhouse on the adjacent plot in the late C20, the building changed ownership and was refurbished. Renovation works were begun in 2016.

Reasons for Listing

Mill House, Tytherington, Gloucestershire, a C16 farmhouse extended and updated in the early C17 and later, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: built using traditional vernacular materials and techniques with characteristic architectural features constructed to a high standard and finish for a building of this type;
* Historic interest: buildings such as this provide evidence of the social functions and aspirations of yeoman farmers in the C17 and their role in rural industry of the period;
* Interior decorative scheme: the plasterwork and other decoration are rare and of high quality. Despite only surviving over a small extent, those that do remain give an insight into the high status of the farmer in the locality;
* Degree of survival: despite later alterations, notably roofs replaced in the C18 and adapted in the C19, a significant proportion of the C16/ C17 fabric is intact, with important evidence of its former plan remaining legible;
* Group value: with Newhouse Farmhouse (Grade II) built for the same family and along with their associated farms forming the nucleus of the C17 cloth making industry in the locality.

External Links

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