Listed Building record MDO21048 - Wilksworth Farm, Colehill

Wilksworth farm-house appears to date from circa 1500, much altered in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was originally rubble-built with
squared rubble quoins but has been extensively refaced in brick. The south front has four gabled bays with segmental-headed windows and doorway.

A chamfered arch-braced collar-beam roof truss of about 1500, the only part of the old roof of the south range to survive, indicates that the western part of the range was originally an open-roofed hall. <2>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale map, 1974 (Map). SDO17396.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 4 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(1) Wilksworth Farm (00740190), house, in the N.W. of the parish, appears to date from c. 1500, but it was much altered in the 17th and 18th centuries. The building, originally of rubble with squared rubble quoins, has been extensively refaced in brickwork.

The S. front has four gabled bays, all different in size, with segmental-headed 18th-century windows and a doorway, irregularly disposed. The wall on the W. of the doorway is of rubble; elsewhere it is brick-faced. Incorporated in the E. end of the S. range is a large rubble chimneybreast with heavy quoins. The other elevations display no noteworthy features.

Inside, the ground-floor rooms have deeply chamfered beams of c. 1600, and fireplace-surrounds and panelling of c. 1700. The stairs, with square newel posts, turned balusters and moulded handrails, are of c. 1700. In the attic, 12 ft. from the W. wall, the original S. range, some 17 ft. wide, is spanned by a chamfered arch-braced collar-beam roof truss of c. 1500. Although this truss is the only part to survive, the original roof is likely to have extended from the W. to the E. end of the range. The chamfered arch-brace suggests that the W. part of the range was formerly an open-roofed hall. The large E. chimneybreast presumably served the kitchen, which probably had a chamber above it. In c. 1600 a two-storeyed wing was built at right-angles to the original range and extending 12 ft. N.; the roof of the wing was carried through to terminate at a gable in the S. front, its ridge thus crossing that of the original roof. The central chimney-stack, standing within the former hall and on the W. of the cross-wing, is likely also to be of c. 1600.'

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213217 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 11 2023 1:34PM