Narracott Farmhouse Including Iron Railings To The Garden

Description

This information is taken from the statutory List as it was in 2001 and may not be up to date.

SS 72 SW GEORGE NYMPTON

5/65 Narracott Farmhouse including iron railings to the garden

II

Farmhouse. Probably late medieval in origin, with internal C17 alterations remodelled and extended in the C18, again in the C19. Rendered stone rubble and cob.

Asbestos slate roof, gable end to right, hipped to left end. Two small rendered rebuilt stacks, one axial, one to right gable end, brick shaft to rear hall stack enclosed in later stair projection, and brick stack to gable end of rear service wing. Plan: Overall L-shaped, with 4 rooms and through-passage plan to main range, gable- ended stair addition to rear of inner room and hall butting onto large gable-ended 2- storey rear kitchen wing to rear of left (upper) end which has a continous dairy/scullery lean-to outshut along its outer face. Complex plan development.

Roofspace not accessible at time of survey but 3 raised cruck trusses set low over the hall end lower end strongly suggest a former open hall house, the dramatic rise in floor level over the hall also suggesting a possible later ceiling over of the hall to the lower end. The lower end is partitioned axially towards the rear heating a narrow store-room. The gable end stack may be a C19 insertion. The wide through passage contains a small straight run staircase, probably late C18 to judge by the 2- panelled door at the foot of the stairs. The hall was largely remodelled in the C19.

The inner room used as a study in the C19 is most unusual as it is heated by a stack which backs onto the hall, its large chamfered scroll-stopped axial ceiling beam suggesting that it may be a C17 addition. It is also partitioned axially towards the rear to create a separate passage from the hall which runs past the unheated store room (possibly the original dairy), beyond the inner room to the dairy lean-to outshut. The solid wall partition between the inner room and store room suggests the latter may well be an C18 addition, while the 2-storey rear kitchen wing and outshut would appear to be an early C19 addition. It contains a secondary straight-run staircase which serves only the room over the store room. In the late C19 a grand staircase was added in a narrow gable ended 2-storey extension to the rear of the upper end of hall, with access from the passage to the rear of the inner room.

Exterior: 2-storeys 5-window range. All late C19 6-paned sashes except at the left end which is C20 2-light casement. Ground floor has late C18/early C19 fenestration with 16-paned sash towards the left end and two 20-paned sashes to left and a single 20-paned sash to right of through-passage doorway; the single sash at lower end concealed by a lean-to glass conservatory with brick plinth. Through passage doorway has C19 classical porch with chamfered square section columns supporting plain canopy. 6-panelled door, the upper panels glazed. The rear doorway (used as main entrance) has a timber latticed porch dated 1870; C19 sashes to rear elevation except for a C20 aluminium framed window introduced into the kitchen wing. Railings enclosing the garden have ornamental finials and a matching gate.

Interior: Lower end has C19 fireplace surround and grate. 2-panelled doors off through-passage to hall. Lower end and staircase hall/through-passage partition may have earlier screen concealed, a C17 chamfered headrail being exposed. C19 marble chimney-pieces to hall and inner room, that to inner room flanked by integral cupboards, that to left with C18 hinges chamfered axial ceiling beam, scroll-stopped at upper end. Storage room not accessible at time of survey. C19 kitchen wing has panelled back to integral wall bench. Lime-ash floors to kitchen and dairy, part cobbled/part flagstone floor to scullery. Hall and through-passage have tiled floors. All the principal chambers have raised and fielded 2-panelled doors. Late C19 staircase has square sections newels with carved finials and stick balusters.

The feet of three raised cruck trusses are visible, one over lower end, a closed truss over hall/through-passage partition and one over the hall. Narracott Farmhouse was, until 1986, in the possession of the Huxtable family for some two centuries, and the interesting quality interior features reflect the several phases of alterations carried out by a single family.

MS notes by James Moir.

Listing NGR: SS6999424308

Content

This is part of the Series: IOE01/0618 IOE Records taken by Robin Downes; within the Collection: IOE01 Images Of England

Rights

© Mr Robin Downes. Source: Historic England Archive

This photograph was taken for the Images of England project