Description

TATWORTH AND FORTON CP POST OFFICE LANE (west side)
ST3205 SOUTH CHARD

12/100 Springfield
(formerly listed as Springclose
Farmhouse in the Civil Parish of
Chard)
11.3.81

- II

House. Circa 15; remodelled circa early and mid C17; altered and extended C18 and late C19. Roughcast cob, extended in red brick. Clay double-Roman tile roof with gabled ends. Stone gable-end stack and timber-framed axial stack, both with rebuilt brick shafts.
PLAN: 3-room and through-passage plan house [lower end to the right, north], originally open to the roof from end-to-end and divided by low partitions, the evidence for which is the roof structure completely smoke-blackened from the open-hearth fire in the central hall. Floors were inserted in phases; the high end floored while the hall remained open to the roof; a chamber was formed at the lower end of the house and a large kitchen fireplace in a stack built on the gable end in the early C17; a little later in the C17 a floor and partition were inserted into the hall forming an axial passage behind an unheated central service room. In about the early-mid C18 the central service room was converted into a parlour, panelled and a timber-framed chimney stack inserted backing onto the through-passage. The C18 dairy wing was built behind the high end of the house at about the same time in the C18. The C17 doorframe at the back of the axial passage originally must have given into another wing or stair-turret at the back. Late in the C19 a kitchen wing was built at the back of the lower end, the house was refashioned, most of the windows were replaced and the thatched roof was re-clad in tiles.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5-window east front; late C19 2-and 3-light casements with horizontal glazing bars and C17/18 4-light window to right of doorway; through-passage doorway to right of centre with C19 panelled door, top panels glazed and with late C19 wooden trellis porch with shaped bargeboards; to left of doorway a deep chamfered recess. Rear [west], through-passage rear doorway to left of centre with Tudor arch chamfered frame and old plank door with strap hinges and cover-moulds; C18 3-light window to right and C17 2-light window above with chamfered frame with missing mullion; to right of centre a C17 doorframe with chamfer on the inside; rendered wing on right with half-hipped roof and late C20 conservatory in the angle; late C19 brick wing on left with outshut on gable end.
INTERIOR contains features from all the main phases of the house. The four-and-two narrow end bay roof has five smoke-blackened jointed-cruck-trusses with straight collars mortice-and-tenoned to the principals, three tiers of trenched purlins and a diagonally-set trenched ridgepiece, complete with most of the common-rafters and woven wattle instead of thatching battens; the truss between the hall and the high end bay is closed with wattle-and-daub infilling smoke-blacked on the hall side only; the hall chamber floor is slightly raised. The timber-framed axial stack at low end of hall and backing onto the through-passage can be seen in the roof. The kitchen at the lower end has a deeply-chamfered cross-beam with long cyma stops and a large fireplace with a chamfered timber bressumer with long cyma stops, ashlar jambs and a bread oven with a C19 iron door. C17 plank-and-muntin screen between kitchen and through-passage with scratch-moulding on kitchen side. Remains of original screen under later stairs beside axial stack. Flag stone floors in passages. Axial passage at rear of original hall with C17 chamfered doorway at back; panelled door in moulded architrave in axial partition to parlour formed in hall, lined in fielded panelling with pilasters at the corners, cornice, panelled window shutters and china-cupboard with arched glazed doors with thick glazing bars, shaped shelves and later niches and shell hood; Edwardian chimneypiece. Winder stairs beside axial stack with early C19 stick balustrade. Attic chambers ceiled, but jointed cruck-trusses exposed. Lower end chamber over former kitchen has circa early C17 fireplace with chamfered cranked timber bressumer with long cyma stops and small cupboard to right with panelled door with butterfly hinges. Chamber over high end now open to roof and trusses exposed; C18 2-panel door to room over former dairy in rear wing.
Springfield is a most interesting multiphase house dating from the C15 and with features from all the main periods.

Listing NGR: ST3296505105

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26541105

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)