The house as it is now after restoration

photograph courtesy of the owner Colin Boylett

The farmhouse at Pound Farm is a grade II* listed timber-framed building with the remains of five 15^th century cruck trusses.  The northernmost cruck of the building had collapsed prior to the survey.

Dendrochronology has dated the felling of the timbers of the building to between 1451 and 1461 AD. The house was completely re-faced in the 19^th century.

Pound Farm in 1937

In a cruck building the main structure is based on pairs of crucks (blades) that are usually cut from the same piece of timber. This enables virtually identical size, shape and alignment of timbers. The timbers are joined at the top and usually tied with horizontal collars and form an ‘A’ frame structure that supports the ridge piece and purlins of the roof structure. The feet of the blades are usually set onto stone padstones set into the ground. The side walls carry little load and are linked by horizontal timbers (spurs) to the main cruck frames. The walls are virtually freestanding and could be made of a variety of materials.

Variations occur. Jointed blades are made up of more that one timber while raised crucks have blades raised above ground level from a masonry wall. Base crucks are where the blades do not join but are linked by a tie-beam or wall-plate.

The house (building A)

The exterior

The house was refaced in the 19^th century with rubble and coursed sandstone. The north wall had collapsed down to ground level. It was probably a low plinth type wall that supported a cruck frame (cruck 1). The frame was filled with square panelling and covered in horizontally laid weatherboarding.

The southern gable wall was rubble coursed sandstone all the way to the apex of the roof

The south gable. The doorway, slightly off centre to the east, leads into a storeroom.  The scar of an earlier  roof line can be seen on the west pitch of the gable end.

The south gable wall with wooden support.

The main entrance to the house is situated at the north-east end of the east elevation.  There are two segmented window openings on the ground floor with two more directly above at the first floor level. The two top windows are directly under the wall plate and therefore have flat heads. The window frames are wooden and are of a modern date.  Also at this upper level is a door situated south which leads into the granary.   A short stub wall sticks out just north of the door at ground level. It is interesting to see that this is the only wall that has a shallow stone plinth.  The plinth is 600 mm above the present outside ground level. The well to the house is also situated on this side of the building.

East elevation of the house showing the collapsed south wall

East elevation of the house. The wall had collapsed at the time of the survey.

The west elevation of the house was in a poor state of repair due to collapse of some of the stonework. A photograph taken in 1937 shows the wall in it’s entirety (see above).  At the southern end there was a doorway leading into the cider house and directly above, a squared window with shuttering to light the granary.  From here there were two sets of windows that mirror the positions on the east elevation. These two windows also had openings directly above and were are of the same type as those in the east wall.  To the north there was the cross-passage doorway with a small window slightly to the north but still within the passage.  Finally there were two doors into the byre with a centrally placed opening much like the one over the granary, square in shape with a shuttered door.

The west elevation of the farmhouse

There were two stone chimney stacks. The earlier stack was to the north and replaced a central hearth that heated the hall. The stack originally had a  fireplace on the south side and a later 19^th-20^th century fireplace was inserted into the north face. There was  a baking oven and copper washer attached to the later fireplace.

The later south stack heated the parlour and one of the bedrooms above.

The pitches of the roof have been heightened in two separate phases and most of the original common rafters and purlins have been reused. The roof is now covered by modern concrete tiles.

Longitudinal cross section of the house showing the heights of the roof.

The interior

The main entrance to the house is from the north-west side in what was probably the original cross-passage. The  bay on the north end of the house has been used as a byre. The next bay heading south was the cross-passage and contained a wash room with a small fireplace, baking oven and copper washer. All were housed on the north face of the main stone stack. The bay (wash room) had the roof rafters exposed, while all other bays had inserted ceilings.

South of the passage was the kitchen and pantry. This was divided by a square panelled cross frame with two doorways in the southern wall of the bay that lead to the buttery and parlour. The bay was divided by an inserted timber cross wall set on a stone plinth.

The east elevation of the pantry.

A door led to the cider house located in the last bay at the south end of the farmhouse. The bay was divided by a modern cross wall. The east half had been used as a store, with a granary on the second floor.

The stone west wall of the cider room with a ladder to the granary

The first floor

From the buttery, the remains of a dog legged stair led to the first floor where the upper level had been divided into three bedrooms with a landing at the top of the stairs.  The bedroom over the buttery had partially collapsed along with much of the landing.  A granary store was at the southern end of the building and still retained lime wash/plaster ons the walls.

Door in the east wall of the granary.

The lower walls of the granary were covered in lime plaster. This would have helped prevent the stored crop from going off.

Phasing of the farmhouse (building A)

Phase 1         (Mid 15^th century)

In its original form the house had four bays with five cruck frames. Crucks 1 and 5 would have been truncated, that is to say that the blades have been cut back from the top collar, a usual indication that the roof was hipped at the ends, probably to take a thatched roof.  Each cruck had three tiers of purlins. The top two were trenched into the cruck blades while the lower purlin was trenched into a packing piece.

With the exception of the open cruck frame of the hall, each cruck had three horizontal timbers. A lower tie beam, upper tie beam and a collar.  The external frames to the house were of timber and were held to the blades by a cruck stud or post, pegged to the elbows of the cruck. This post held the wall plate for the pitch of the roof.  The only evidence for any window openings was in the fallen cruck (1) where a two mullion window was situated directly beneath the collar.

Entry into the house was by the cross-passage. The hall with its open cusped cruck frame was a sign of wealth for all that entered. The southern end of the house being the high end with the solar in the last bay. It is difficult to say whether this was divided into two rooms on the ground floor at this first phase of construction. Heating for the house was by way of an open hearth near the open cusped frame.  The louvre was lost when the roof was redone, so the actual placement of the hearth is uncertain. The crucks all have a collar.

The decorated cruck (3) of the open hall

The open frame (cruck 3) has a central quatrefoil flanked by two trefoils above the collar.  The moulding on the inside edge is chamfered on both sides and has a step and two more chamfers. 

The open cruck frame of the hall

The lower north end of the house was either a byre or services (kitchen) area. Although at this period many houses had external kitchens.  Perhaps it may explain the use of  the squared building E, just slightly east of the house. There seems to be an opening for a doorway with a crudely cut back door head from the passage to the service end. This may or may not belong to this phase but there should be some form of entry into this end of the building.  Perhaps the tie beam has been replaced at a later date and it was the sole entry into the byre directly from within the house.

Phase 2         (16th-17th century)

During phase 2 floors were added and the chimney stack in the hall replaced the hearth. The pitches of the roof were heightened to accommodate the extra head space needed for the upper rooms.  The hipped ends of the roof were built up to form gable ends and the thatch roof may have been re-roofed with stone tiles (there was evidence of stone tiles found around the house during the excavations). The byre end of the house retained its original roof line with an original purlin still in-situ on the western pitch. There was no indication or evidence to show where the original stairs were, but according to building tradition, they were probably to one side of the chimney stack. 

Two ceiling beams with chamfered stepped stops held the floor over the original hall.   A timber cross framed wall divided the ground floor hall into two halves. A four centred headed  door led you into what was to become the pantry but it was noted that the chamfer on this beam was only evident on the western side.  A doorway in the frame of cruck 4 also on its western side led into the parlour.  Perhaps this cross wall gave entry from the hall to the stairs and also closed off the internal entry to the parlour.

Cruck 5

There are through cuts on the blades of the southern cruck 5, just above the upper tie beam, which probably indicates that there was some sort of building placed on the end of the house running south.  These cuts would have probably held purlins due to their angles.

Phase 3 (19th-20th century)

During this phase the external walls were rebuilt in stone and whatever building was added to the south of the house was demolished.  An extra bay was built on the southern end that became the cider house, storeroom with a granary above.

The pitches of the roof were heightened to accommodate the need for more bedrooms. The central first floor doorway in cruck 4, was blocked and moved to the east where this became the landing where the stairs are today.  The bedrooms were divided into three rooms, by lathe and plaster partitions.  Two rooms are above the hall and the third is east of the landing each having their own door entry with a small glazed window for light.  Ceilings were put in to hide the roof and to keep heat in, although the cross-passage was still open to the roof.  The whole roof was replaced and many original timbers were reused. During the restoration many original timbers were seen throughout the house with a large majority within the stone walls.

Cruck 4

The doorway in cruck 4, was blocked and a new doorway was inserted to the east.  This now being outside the pantry.  This new doorway led to the stairs and  a further doorway closing off the dairy.

During this phase the original hall fireplace was made smaller with the insertion of two shelves either side of the fire. A brick surround fireplace  was inserted on the north side of the stack along with a brick baking oven and copper washer, making the cross-passage area a washing room.  A second phase of blocking within the hall fireplace occurred from this period.  An iron range was inserted which was in used until recently. 

Phase 1: The original fireplace of the stack.

 Phase 2: The fireplace was reduced in size and two seats/shelf’s were added.

Phase 3: The reduction of the fireplace and the addition of a small fireplace to the north. A baking oven and copper washing pot were also added.

Phase plans of the north chimney stack

The baking oven and copper wash pot on the north side of the stack

A new chimney stack was built on the south face of cruck 4, and a fireplace (left) heated the new parlour and the bedroom directly above.

The doorway from the cross-passage to the byre was blocked and vertical panelling, weatherboarding along with lathe and plaster were added to cruck 3, to completely cut off the byre from within the house.

The blades of the crucks were adzed, certainly within the bedrooms where new plaster walls covered everything. This did not occur above the ceilings.

Reconstruction of Cruck four with three tiers of purlins trenched into the blades.

North Barn (Building B)

This  two bay barn is attached to the main house and is situated slightly north west.  It is generally made up from reused and modern timbers set on a shallow plinth of stone and brick.

The roof is covered in modern corrugated iron sheets and the three trusses carry two tiers of purlins plus a ridge beam at the apex.  There are three entrances into the barn two are from the south elevation, at the east and west ends and the third is central to the east truss leading into a lean-to.  The floors are covered in cobble stones.  On the west bay is an upper floor probably used for storage.  This barn has retained some fittings, a simple wooden manger is situated within the north east corner and running parallel with the intermediate truss on its western face is another wooden manger with a hay rack over.

The east truss

The east truss has a tie beam and collar with studs above and below the tie beam. The north-west post has a jowled head that is tapered with a curved return. Such jowls are common from the 13^th century but decline in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The south-west post is missing.

Diagonal bracing from the jowled posts to the now rotten sill beam were evident.  The western truss is of the same design as this truss although it does have a shuttered squared window opening above the collar.

Intermediate frame

The intermediate truss has been junked together using reused timbers.

It has however a tie beam and four raking struts of different lengths.  Beneath the tie beam are studs with two diagonal braces to help stabilise the whole frame. Some of the timbers on this frame have carpenters marks, these are approx 3 inches in length, which usually indicates a 17^th century date.

Medieval carpenters’ numerals on the east face of the intermediate frame.

The system was based on various combinations of I, V and X with the V sometimes inverted. The marks were used to assist in the erecting of the frames on site. Marks were added by the carpenters to denote a particular section of the dwelling, so enabling the timbers to be easily sorted prior to erection.

It doesn’t however  tell us the date in which these timbers were put together to form this frame.

The modern cut timbers that form the box frame around the trusses, (north, south, east and west elevations) were made to take weatherboarding as there are no stave holes or grooves visible that would have usually held lathe and plaster or wattle and daub between the panels.

Lean-to (not illustrated)

There was a small lean-to on the east elevation that butts the north end the byre. The lean-to, like the north end of the house, had fallen down. Only a partial bit of stone wall remained.  The roof seemed to have been covered with corrugated iron. An entrance on the north elevation is still just visible.

Building C

All that remains of this four bay barn is a shallow stone plinth with a sill beam placed on top (see below). The sill beams have been reused as there are many scarf joints and it is hard to make out where the original posts were seated as there are numerous mortices.  Originally it was a three bay barn with a central threshing bay, floored with large flagstones. The bays either side have dirt floors and were closed off from the threshing bay by shallow stone plinths with a simple frame of what usually is a central stud with two angled timbers either side.  This was a typical practice from the period of the 17^th century.   A bay  has been added at the north end and has a cobbled floor and was probably used to keep cattle.  During the recording of this barn it was seen that the fallen timbers from the house had been put together with timbers from this barn and some of them were noted to be of an early date as they contained lap joints.

Building D

This building is a typical  Dutch barn having a curved metal roof of corrugated iron that is supported on cast iron posts and probably dates to the late 19th-early 20th century.

Building E

This square shaped building measured 3.3m x 3.4m

Only the stone footings remain. It was a square building that was still standing in the 1930’s. The internal frame was probably of timber and was coated with weather boarding. The roof was of corrugated iron.

All that remains of the building are the stone foundations and floor.

The foundations showed no evidence of an entrance apart from possible steps on the north-west side.

Building F (not illustrated)

These out buildings had already undergone restoration prior to the survey. They are recorded on the 1903 Ordnance Survey however, and are of some antiquity.

photograph courtesy of Colin Boylett

Reporting:

Unpublished report - Pound Farm, Kington, Herefordshire: archaeological building survey and monitoring - Daniel Lewis with building description and analysis by Robert Williams, 2004  Dan Lewis Rob Williams

This report is available at the Archaeological Data Service site

To view or download the report click here

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