MSO10819 - Shircombe Farmhouse, Hownel Lane, Brompton Regis (Building)

Farmhouse. Circa 1840. Roughcast over flat bedded rubble, slate roof, overhanging eaves with sprockets on facade, shortened at rear, decorative ridge tiles with a few plain tile replacements, brick stacks gable ends and between first and second bays left. Plan: 3-cell and cross passage. Two storeys, 4 bays, 16-pane sash windows, gabled porch with 4-centered arch head opening, ribbed early C20 door inserted. It is believed that an earlier farmhouse stood to the north-west and was largely destroyed in a fire. [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265620. First Listed on 04/08/1986. [2] Cross passage plan. Stone, Render, roughcast and pebbledash walls. Gabled roof [3] The farmstead was visited in April 1997. The house was described as large and long-shaped with renewed hornless sash windows, possibly with a three room plan. [4] The building was visited in March 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 5. [5] The farmhouse does not appear on the Kings Brompton Tithe Map and must therefore have been constructed after this was surveyed. [6] The farmhouse was subject to survey in 2014 and 2015. It was suggested that the house was a largely mid 19th Century rebuild and enlargement of a 17th Century three cell cross passage house with a lateral stack, with the axial stack at the western end of the building being an 18th Century addition. The farmhouse was noted to retain a fairly complete survival of the 19th Century decorative schema of the building, of a relatively simple style. The overall impression is of compromises being made within the layout and architectural details of the building, with the focus being upon the scale of the building as a statement of wealth and status. [7,8] The building was assessed as part of the 2018-19 rapid condition survey of Exmoor’s Listed Buildings, receiving a BAR score of 6. [9]