Description

SS 70 SW
4/71

ZEAL MONACHORUM
Lower Burston Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Early or mid C16 with major late C16 and C17 improvements, C17
extension, and modernised in late C19. Plastered cob on rubble footings; stone
rubble and cob stacks with C19 and C20 brick tops; slate roof (formerly thatch).
Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south with unheated inner
room at left (west) end. The hall has a projecting rear lateral stack. In the C17
the service end was rebuilt and enlarged to 2 rooms. The first room has an axial
stack backing onto the through passage and the second with a projecting end kitchen
stack with oven projection. 2 storeys.
Irregular 4-window front comprising a variety of windows. The left (inner room) end
is blind. The front passage doorway is roughly central and contains a wide late C19
panelled door. It is flanked by late C19 tripartite sashes with central horned 4-
pane sashes. Above these are contemporary horned 6-pane sashes and above the door a
similar 4-pane sash. At the right end is a wide C20 casement without glazing bars
with a late C19 casement with glazing bars above. The roof level drops from left to
right on the lower side of the passage. The roof is half-hipped to left and gable-
ended to right. Similar late C19 fenestration to rear.
Good interior: although most features which show are the result of the late C19
modernisation. Nevertheless the original layout remains and those C16 and C17
features which are not covered with C19 plaster are intact. The internal crosswalls
are cob. All the fireplaces are blocked by C19 and C20 grates. The kitchen (second
service end room) has a C17 axial beam; soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. The
first service end room has a plastered-over crossbeam. The hall has an axial beam
and half-beams from the mid C17 flooring of the originally open hall: they are
soffit-chamfered with unusually elaborate bar-scroll-step stops. The inner room has
a massive soffit-chamfered and runout-stopped axial beam, probably late C17-early
C18. The roof is only part accessible. The roof over the 2 service end rooms is
C17 and carried on an uncollared jointed cruck truss (the elbow is papered over)
with threaded purlins. The hall has a 2 bay roof carried on a jointed cruck truss.
Here the elbow joint is also papered over. the truss itself cannot be seen but the
associated roof structure over the passage chamber can. It is smoke-blackened
indicating that the roof here is early or mid C16 and that the hall was then open to
the roof and heated by an open hearth fire.

Listing NGR: SS7134802402

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611365

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock