Description

MORETONHAMPSTEAD SLONCOMBE SX 78 NW 1/170 Hatherley - 23.8.55 GV II*

House, formerly farmhouse. Early C16 with later C16/early C17 modifications, and addition, refronted and modernised in early C19. Rendered granite rubble walls. Thatched roof with gable ends. Right end gable chimney stack and axial stack are constructed of granite blocks with brick shafts. Left-hand gable stack is rendered brick. Originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan with hall and lower room at least open to the roof with central hearth to hall. Ceiled probably late C16/early C17 and hall stack inserted backing onto passage. Gable end stack added to inner room. Circa early C17 outshut added at rear of hall. Newel staircase adjoining it in projection. In circa early C19 front door of passage was blocked and staircase inserted in that position. Passage created between hall and inner room and C19 framed staircase inserted in place of usual stair. Hall and inner room modernised at this stage, lower room had stack inserted at gable end. House refronted in C19 Gothic style. 2 storeys. Symmetrical 2-window section with central doorway to right-hand side of front with asymmetrical 2-window section to left. Windows on right-hand side are early C19 2-light casements with depressed arched heads and decorative glazing with stained glass at the top. Early C19 6-panelled door with 4 glazed lights above, under arched canopy porch supported on 4 octagonal posts with moulded capitals and square bases. In the left-hand section on the ground floor roughly at the centre is a single light mid-late C19 casement with small panes and above it to the left is a similar 2-light window. To its right is a late C16/early C17 3-light wood mullioned window with chamfered mullions and old leaded panes. Early C19 iron railings run along front of house shortly in front of it. At the right gable end on the 1st floor is a 2-light granite mullion window with rebated surround, chamfered mullion and old leaded panes. At the rear is a central single storey projection under a continuation of the thatched roof which houses the staircase on the left and has on the left side a rounded edge with a small single light window in an arched granite surround. Small single light casement on the front wall lights the outshut and on its right-hand wall is a 4-light wood mullioned window with slender chamfered mullions, unglazed which has had later glazed window inserted behind. Immediately to the right of the outshut is the rear doorway to the former passage which has a circa early C17 ovolo moulded wooden frame and contemporary wide heavy studded plank door with trident ended strap hinges. To the right are C19 and C20 2-and 3-light casements on ground and 1st floor. Tall granite rubble garden wall extends from left-hand (north-east) gable end to road junction and then extends east for approximately 20 metres incorporating pointed granite arched doorway. Good interior containing features from the 2 main builds of the house. Much good early C19 joinery in hall and inner room. Both front ground floor windows have panelled surrounds, seats and shutters. Inner room fireplace has wooden chimneypiece with decorative Victorian arched opening grate. Staircase at rear of inserted passage has curved newels and stick balusters. Hall has boxed in beam, 6- panel door to passage and fireplace with plain wooden chimneypiece and early C19 iron grate. On its rear wall are 2 wall cupboards with glazed doors at the top with rounded heads and with ogee-shaped heads below. According to owner when plaster was stripped from the walls earlier panelling was revealed. The 2 doors either side of the fireplace were introduced by the present owners. The back of the chimneybreast which formerly faced onto the passage is typically constructed of dressed granite blocks. The lower room has a heavy plastered cross beam with chamfers. Apparently it formerly had 2 hearths, one large one to take the range and one smaller one, now a cupboard, which people could sit around, this would be fairly typical of the C19. On the lst floor the ceilings are high and the feet of very substantial trusses are visible almost up to collar height. Above the inner room the rear truss is a jointed cruck. Threaded purlins. Access to the roof space is difficult but above the lower end at least the timbers appear to be smoke- blackened. All the original roof trusses survive. This house is interesting not only for its good C16 and C17 features and the survival of the roof but for the high quality updating which it received in the early C19 which is unusual in a relatively unimportant farmhouse.

Listing NGR: SX7372786246

External Links

• Wikidata Q17534775

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Recommended Books

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)