Summary
Former single dwelling, built in around the early C17, refaced in brick, subdivided into two dwellings and extended in around the late C19.
Reasons for Designation
1 and 2 Lower Toothill Farm Cottages, Toothill Road, Nursling and Rownhams, Hampshire, a pair of early-C17 cottages, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a former single dwelling built in around 1600, which available evidence strongly indicates retains a significant proportion of early timber-framing and joinery;
* surviving historic joinery of particular note includes elements of the box-framed walls and internal partitions, the roof structure and stopped-and-chamfered ceiling beams, and evidence for the locations of early doors, all of which will help with understanding the original date, form and circulation of the dwelling.
Historic interest:
* it is a good representative example of the vernacular building traditions of the region and their evolution.
History
Originally a timber box-framed house dating from around 1600 with a baffle-entry plan including a large central chimney and at least three bays, consisting of the central-hall bay, the west-end bay which may have been the parlour end, and the east end which may have been the service end. In the C18 a porch was added to the front. It appears as a single dwelling on the Parish of Nursling and Rownhams Tithe Map (1846). By the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map (1:2500; surveyed 1865-1867) the building had been divided into two dwellings. Probably at around this time the building was refaced in brick, the windows were replaced with the current casements, extensions were added to the rear and the roof was recovered in slate.
Details
Former single dwelling, built in around the early C17, refaced in brick, subdivided into two dwellings and extended in around the late C19.
MATERIALS: a timber-framed building which has been refaced in brick laid in Sussex-bond, topped by a pitched slate roof with three brick stacks.
PLAN: a former baffle-entry house of at least three bays, on an east-west axis. It has been subdivided into two dwellings; to the east is 1 Lower Toothill Farm Cottages, and to the west is number 2. To the north are late-C19 extensions.
EXTERIOR: the main range is one-and-a-half storeys. The windows are multi-pane casements topped by brick segmental arches. The four-window south elevation includes a central pitched-roof porch and a pair of dormer windows. This range is topped by a steeply pitched slate roof. There are three brick-chimney stacks along the roof ridge; the largest sits behind the entrance porch, there is also a lateral stack at the west end, flanked by a ground floor window and pair of first-floor windows, and another stack is located along the east end of the roof ridge. To the rear are later two-storey brick, pitched-roof additions with first-floor timber cladding.
INTERIOR: based on available information, there is surviving timber-frame within 2 Lower Toothill Farm Cottage (west end and central bay). This part of the building is entered through the south porch within which there is evidence of timber framing surviving in the former front elevation. The porch opens onto the side of the substantial central fireplace which includes a former bread oven and timber bressumer. On the other side of the fireplace is a winder staircase. This house has two principal trusses with box-frame crosswalls below. There is also evidence of timber framing surviving within the former rear (north) wall. The ground-floor central bay has a stopped-and-chamfered spine beam. Above the fireplace, and on the south side of the spine beam, is a stopped-and-chamfered mantel beam which may be evidence of a former smoke bay. The timber-framed wall into the west bay has two openings; around the right-hand door way there is evidence of the original doorway in this bay, including the remains of a chamfered rail above and a jamb. The left-hand door was added in around the early C19 when this end was subdivided into two rooms; within the right hand room ceiling is the exposed underside of a section of early floorboards; the larger left-hand room retains the original spine beam to the west end bay as well as a C19 fireplace in the end wall. On the first floor a pair of purlins is visible, as well as the tops of two box-frame crosswalls with principal trusses above. Within the crosswall between the central and west-end bay is evidence of a blocked doorway denoted by a pair of studs interrupting the tie-beam. There is also evidence for a possible blocked doorway in the crosswall between the staircase and the east-end (dividing the upper floor of 1 and 2 Lower Toothill Farm Cottages). There is a small C19 brick fireplace in the west end.
There is no available information about the interior of 1 Lower Toothill Farm Cottage or the C19 rear extensions to either cottage; however, early timber-framing may also survive in the east-end of the main range.
