Building record MDO43331 - Chitcombe Farm House, Woolland

A detached two-storey former farmhouse with some Gothic details. It dates from the mid-19th century, and is believed to have been constructed as part of a new building programme at Chitcombe after the estate was purchased by the Williams family. The house is built of coursed stone rubble with ashlar dressings under tiled roofs. There are end stacks and a flat-roofed lantern to the roof, as well as late-20th century rooflights. The rear and south elevations are rendered. The house has a symmetrical west front of three bays with mullioned and transomed windows and a central doorway; the central bay is gabled.

Chitcombe Farmhouse, which is set back from the road, is a detached two-storey former farmhouse with some Gothic details. It dates from the mid-19th century and is believed to have been constructed as part of a new building programme at Chitcombe after the estate was purchased by the Williams family. The house is built of coursed stone rubble with ashlar dressings under tiled roofs. There are end stacks and a flat-roofed lantern to the roof, as well as late-20th century rooflights. The rear and south elevations are rendered. The house has a symmetrical west front of three bays with mullioned and transomed windows and a central doorway; the central bay is gabled. To the north and south are short, symmetrical single- storey wings, and there is a further wing of one storey to the rear. The house was extended to the rear in the 20th century with a large single-storey addition in matching materials. The interior is very plain but retains mid-19th century features including simple panelled doors, fireplaces with simple wooden surrounds, though one to the ground floor has a segmental-headed stone surround, and staircases with turned balusters. To the north of the house are a number of outbuildings.

As set out in the Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings (March 2010), although most buildings pre-dating 1840 are listed, selection is required for post-1840 buildings because of the greatly increased number of buildings erected and the much larger numbers that have survived. English Heritages guidance for domestic houses re-emphasises the need for selectivity and highlights that to be recommended for listing, a house needs to display architectural special interest that sets it apart from the very large numbers of well-preserved houses of a similar date that survive nationally. Chitcombe Farmhouse is an interesting example of the 19th century taste for the Gothic style, but the features that distinguish it are fairly modest and few in number.

Architecturally it is undistinguished, with its Gothic detailing derived from the rather unimaginative agglomeration of characteristic features rather than the careful design, craftsmanship and detailing which typifies the best examples of the style. As a result it is no more remarkable than the large numbers of similarly-designed houses which were constructed during this period, and the building has also been extended. Although it does retain some interior details, these mainly date from the mid-19th century and there is nothing to suggest that they are not typical for their date or that they are of special interest in their own right. The quality of such fittings would need to be very high indeed to weight the balance in favour of listing, and there is no indication that this is the case at Chitcombe Farmhouse. Although relatively intact, the house remains a relatively plain example of a building type of which there are many surviving examples. While of local interest it lacks the special architectural or historic interest, in a national context, required to fulfil the criteria for listing. <1>

<1> English Heritage, English Heritage Listing File, 171341 (Scheduling record). SDO17502.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1528863 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 14 2022 8:49AM