Listed Building: COOMBE FARMHOUSE (1212984)

COUNTISBURY SS 74 NE 4/15 Coombe Farmhouse - - II Farmhouse. Dated 1640 and 1664 (reset datestones in porch), remodelled and enlarged in 1848 (datestone), and further altered in the late C20. Coursed sandstone rubble with bitumen-covered gable-ended slate roof. Plan and development: mid C17 2-room plan with former hall to left and axial stone stack backing onto central probably former cross passage; possible former lower room to left (north) now demolished or either rebuilt. Mid C19 remodelling included substantial rebuilding of outer walls (2 square bays added to front, see straight joints and eaves probably raised), insertion of staircase in cross-passage and addition of porch to front (west), and external lateral stack probably added to rear of right-hand room (south) too. Large additions of the same date include wing to rear of hall with external lateral stone stack, and former shippon set back to left, converted to domestic use in the late C20. One storey and attic with 2-storey former shippon. Exterior: symmetrical 3-bay front to west; large probably C19 central gable with reset millstone in apex and flanking full-height square bays with catslide roofs and gabled full dormers. Late C20 2-light metal casements in C19 openings with dressed stone flat arches. Central mid C19 nail-studded stone boarded door with pegged frame and Tudor-arched head. Gabled stone porch with plinth and round archway with dressed voussiors; small reset millstone in apex of gable with small raised stone shield dated: "1848", left-hand jamb with reset inscribed stone dated: "1640". Former shippon adjoining house to left with pair of first-floor late C20 two-light metal casements, ground-floor late C20 two-light metal casement to right in older opening with stone flat arch (former doorway, see straight joints beneath), and C20 2-leaf boarded door to right. Interior: hall has 4 deep-chamfered cross beams with scroll stops, blocked large fireplace, and bench against left-hand wall. Stone staircase in probably former cross-passage. C19 brick-arched fireplace in right-hand room. Roofspace not inspected. The house was formerly built into the hillside at the rear, partly excavated in the late C20. It was formerly on the Glenthorne (q.v) estate and the alterations were probably part of the improvements carried out on many of the farms in the mid C19. Listing NGR: SS7658948879