MSO10626 - Ranscombe Farmhouse, Wootton Courtenay (Building)

Farmhouse. Early C19. Red sandstone random rubble, asbestos slate roof, decorative ridge tiles, rendered stacks right gable end of lower independently roofed service wing, right gable end of main block, rising from eaves on wing at rear. T-plan: main block with outshot, service wing left, barn attached to wing at rear, set gable end to road. Two storeys, 3:2 bays; end bay left unlit, first floor 20-pane sash windows left, 25-pane sash windows below with central entrance, right C20 windows first floor, C20 door in left bay, main entrance remains of 6-panel door with pentice porch. Left return fronting road, C20 fenestration and in wing at rear; barn abutting, rendered, double doors. Interior not seen. [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265401. First Listed on 05/06/1985. [2] T-plan. Stone, Random rubble walls. Hipped, Gabled roof [3] A recent planning application made reference to the house being of the 16th Century or earlier. [4] The buildings were visited in June 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. The house received a BAR score of 5 and the barn a score of 6. [5] The farmhouse is shown on the 2020 MasterMap data and is part of a larger group of buildings labelled Ranscombe Farm. [6] The building is mentioned in the 2005 Exmoor Farmsteads Conservation Area Character Appraisal. [7] The buildings are discussed in the 2015 Exmoor Farmsteads Conservation Area Appraisal. The farmhouse may have 16th or 17th Century origins as a three bay cross passage house aligned north to south, updated in the early 19th Century and given a symmetrical front with multi pane sash windows. It was possibly extended to the north and east and linked to a bank barn at this time, to form its modern T plan. The bank barn is single storey on the roadside with a double door, and two storey elevation on the yard side with two brick arched openings to the lower floor. It has a further shed at its east end. The farmhouse and outbuildings are largely constructed of local red sandstone, with some brick and cob. Between 2005 and 2014, it was noted that the elevations to the main farmhouse had been rendered. The farmhouse and attached barn had recently been reslated, with the lean to at the end of the barn including some earlier local Treborough slate on its roadside elevation. [8]