Yeomans, Easton Royal
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Yeomans, Easton Royal A Historic Buildings Study Report No. B6634 February 2018 Contents 1. Introduction Pg. 3 2. Instruction Pg. 3 3. Purpose of Document Pg. 4 4. Acknowledgements Pg. 4 5. Some notes on history Pgs. 4-6 6. Annotated floor plans Pg. 7 7. Mapping Pgs. 8-9 8. Description Pgs. 10-26 Yeomans, Easton Royal: Wiltshire Buildings Record February 2018 Page 2 1 INTRODUCTION Yeomans is a detached brick and timber-framed house of c1600 standing on a high bank on the west side of the village street of Easton Royal. The village is approximately 3.5 miles east of Pewsey1, and 7 miles SSE of Marlborough. It is a grade II listed building, designated in June 19882: EASTON ROYAL EASTON ROYAL SU 26 SW (west side) 2/203 Yeoman's GV II House. C17, altered in C19. Timber framed and brick, thatched roof. Single storey and attic, 2 bays, with narrow brick extension to south extended to rear as wing. Central 6-panelled door in timber porch. Canted bay windows to ground floor, rising to square bays on first floor with framed gables. Dormer to left end. Framing 2 panels high on brick sills, with reverse curved corner braces. Framing altered in C19 and C19 framed gable added to right. Interior has stop chamfered spine beam to left room and large stack, the fireplace being blocked. Stack removed from rear wall of right bay. Timber framed partition to left of entrance stair lobby. Listing NGR: SU2074460525. Yeomans is also within the Easton Royal Conservation Area designated in July 19753 4. The conservation area covers the whole of the main street from just north of Easton crossroads to just south of Culley’s Farm. This gives a comprehensive account of the vernacular character of the village and its history. The garden plot behind Yeomans is said to be bounded by native hedgerows. 2 INSTRUCTION In accordance with instruction by Mr & Mrs Needham-Bennett, a historical appraisal of Yeomans, Easton Royal was undertaken in February 2018. The results, incorporated in the following report, present a photographic and textual record of the building as it now stands, supported by survey drawings, map and documentary evidence where relevant. This is followed by cautious archaeological interpretation. A copy of this document and its copyright will be retained by Wiltshire Buildings Record for public information unless alternative instruction is received. 1 The Victoria History of Wiltshire volume XVI: ‘Easton’ is taken to mean the town east of Pewsey 2 https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1364556 accessed 14/02/2018 3 Hard copy held by Wiltshire Buildings Record 4 http://passthrough.fw- notify.net/download/508922/http://www.eastonroyal.org/uploads/1/2/1/5/12156259/easton_royal_- _approved_statement-2.pdf accessed 14/02/2018 Yeomans, Easton Royal: Wiltshire Buildings Record February 2018 Page 3 3 PURPOSE OF DOCUMENT This report is intended to provide supporting information to assist in determining an application for listed building consent for the alteration of Yeomans in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework5 paragraph 128 which states: In determining applications, local planning authorities should require an applicant to describe the significance of any heritage assets affected, including any contribution made by their setting. The level of detail should be proportionate to the assets’ importance and no more than is sufficient to understand the potential impact of the proposal on their significance. As a minimum the relevant historic environment record should have been consulted and the heritage assets assessed using appropriate expertise where necessary. Where a site on which development is proposed includes or has the potential to include heritage assets with archaeological interest, local planning authorities should require developers to submit an appropriate desk-based assessment and, where necessary, a field evaluation. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Building Recorders: Dorothy Treasure, Alyson Curtis, Peter Filtness and Paul Jack at Wiltshire Buildings Record, Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, Cocklebury Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 3QN Tel. 01249 705508 email to: [email protected] Documentary Research: Phyl Martin at Wiltshire Buildings Record, with additional material by PM Slocombe Survey Drawings: Kindly supplied by Prue Smith. Additional drawings by Peter Filtness 5 SOME NOTES ON HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT The village is the site of Easton Priory, a house of Trinitarian Friars, to which the parish church was given. The priory was built to relieve poor travellers on the road. The suffix ‘Royal’ was mistakenly attributed by John Ward, the local vicar, in 1838, and has been used ever since6. 5 Department for Communities and Local Government, 27th March 2012 6 The Victoria History of Wiltshire, ibid. Yeomans, Easton Royal: Wiltshire Buildings Record February 2018 Page 4 Easton is a street village, and thought to have been planned, perhaps as an early 13th century colony from Pewsey. The village was planted, or grew, along a sunken road, especially sunk at its north end where Yeomans is situated. It was important in the earlier 13th century and possibly before. There were around 23 small farmsteads in c1600, each one with a close of land behind it7. Nearly all the 71 dwellings in the parish in 17358 and 76 in 18149 were recorded in the street. Several of these timber-framed farmhouses, 2-3 panels high, remain. Yeomans is at the north end of a row of detached and semi-detached listed houses lining the west side of the main street including no.20, a former inn named The Bleeding Horse dating from the 19th century10; Arlington Cottage, a 17th century building refaced in the 18th century11; and The Cottage, an early 18th century brick house refaced in the 19th century12. Chandlers to the north-east, identified as having a substantial cruck frame at its core dating possibly from the 14th century13. The likelihood remains that some of those brick houses may encase the timber remains of some of earlier farmhouses. Yeomans is one of these small farmhouses, probably dating to c1600 or the very early 17th century. It has an unusual single-room plan that was heated by an external stack on the south side, built outside the timber frame. Other single-room plans have been noted at New Mill, Milton Lilbourne; Yew Tree Cottage, Urchfont; The Rest, Northbrook, Market Lavington and Holly Cottage, Manningford Bruce, though they are generally rare in the county.14 Plans drawn by Paul Woodfield show that the single bay was unevenly divided into a hall (a kitchen/living room) and a narrow inner room used as an entrance and storage area. The Rest, Market Lavington had a side- passage entrance to the main living room, with a loft stair accessed from the passage. The timber framing features unusual inversely-curved corner braces, which are perhaps closest in date to the ogee braces seen in the last quarter of the 16th century15. No other examples have been recorded by Wiltshire Buildings Record in the county, but they have been noted by Edward Roberts in Hampshire, dating to the 17th and even 18th century16. In Cambridgeshire, the same form of bracing has been found in association with medieval timber-framing17. It has a later-added timber- framed addition on the north side that protected the original frame from weathering. This framing is characterised by horizontal members (rails) at different heights from 7 The Victoria History of Wiltshire, ibid. 8 WRO 9/15/41/VCH Wilts vol xv1,pages 141/2 9 Ibid. 10 https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1035989 11 https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1285216 12 https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1181001 13 Wiltshire Buildings Record fieldwork 1997: archive no. B6049 14 Wiltshire Buildings Record fieldwork, pers. comm. Pam Slocombe 15 i.e. Townsend Cottage, All Cannings: Wiltshire Farmhouses & Cottages 1500-1850 by PM Slocombe 16 Edward Roberts: Hampshire Houses 1250-1700; pg 58 17 Regional variation in timber-framed building in England and Wales down to 1550: Cambridgeshire: A traditional crossroads in traditional building by Beth Davis Yeomans, Easton Royal: Wiltshire Buildings Record February 2018 Page 5 those in the main core. There are few features beyond the un-matching timber framing, and it is assumed that it dates perhaps to the later 17th century. It may have been a ‘hovel’; a poorly- or simply-constructed end in which a trade was carried on. A contemporary addition was made on the south side, filling in the angle between the chalk stack and the main house, perhaps to enclose a cupboard space. By 184618 Yeomans was an L-shaped building, probably the result of an extension at each end in c1800 to form a parlour at the north end, and a storage area and kitchen at the south and west ends. The same survey indicates Yeomans on the map as no.170 (fig. 1), the occupier being William Goddard and in another entry William's name is crossed out in pencil and the Rev. Kingsbury's name is inserted. In both entries Yeomans is described as a cottage and garden occupying 27 perches, the owner being Charles Brudenell Bruce, Marquess of Ailesbury.19 The Inland Revenue 2nd edition 190020 suggests that Yeomans was occupied by John Denham and owner was the Marquess of Ailesbury. It is described as a cottage with garden with a gross annual value of 2 pounds, 10 shillings, and 2 pence21. Between 1900 (fig. 3) and 192422 (fig. 4) a brick lean-to service area with a corrugated monopitch roof, perhaps containing a scullery, was added in the inner rear angle. It may have been at this period that Yeomans’ external appearance was altered by the addition of the ground and first floor bay windows, and by the false- framed dormers and north gable end.