FROBURY FARMHOUSE, KINGSCLERE HAMPSHIRE Heritage Statement Bob Edwards Revised version December 2014 FORUM Heritage S e r v i c e s FROBURY FARMHOUSE, KINGSCLERE HAMPSHIRE Heritage Statement FORUM Heritage S e r v i c e s FROBURY FARMHOUSE, KINGSCLERE, HAMPSHIRE Heritage Statement 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Frobury Farmhouse is a former farmhouse located a little over 1km to the west of Kingsclere in north Hampshire (NGR SU 51247, 59394). The farmhouse has recently been sold and the new owners are seeking to make some alterations to the property. Fowler Architecture and Planning are preparing plans for the alterations. 2.2 Forum Heritage Services has been commissioned to make an assessment of the building and to prepare a heritage statement to inform the development of the proposals and accompany the planning and listed building consent applications. Bob Edwards BSc PG Dip IHBC MIfA, Director of Forum Heritage Services, visited the property on 16 July 2014 and directed some limited opening up of the fabric to inform particular elements of the proposals and subsequently prepared this report. 2.3 The assessment of the building identified potentially early fabric within the roof structure. Hampshire timber-framed buildings experts, Edward Roberts and Bill Fergie subsequently visited the building and confirmed the interest of the building. The Hampshire Buildings Survey Group, led by Edward Roberts, agreed to provide funding for a dendro- chronological survey with the owners contributing to the costs. Mr John Walker, a national expert on early aisled halls was also invited to view the property and he contributed significantly to the understanding of the development of the house. The dendro- chronological survey was undertaken by Dr Martin Bridge of the Oxford Dendro- chronological Laboratory whose interim report is presented as Appendix I. Due to the failure to date timbers from a key phase of the development of the house, further samples for radio carbon dating have been taken and are currently being analysed. 2.0 BACKGROUND 2.1 The manor of Frobury is not mentioned in Domesday Book by name but is probably represented by one of the estates in the hundred of Kingsclere held of the king in chief. In the middle of the 12th century the manor was probably held by Ranulf de Broc, usher and chief marshal of the household to Henry II, its tenure being attached to the serjeanty of being usher to the king. On his death about 1187 it was probably assigned in dower to his widow Damietta, the lady of Chetton, Eudon and Berwick, Shropshire, who held it until her death in 1204, the manor passing to Stephen de Turnham and Edelina his wife, the daughter and heir of Ranulf and Damietta. Stephen held the manor in right of his wife until his death about 1214, when it passed to his widow, who as Edelina of Frobury was returned by the Testa de Nevill as holding £6 worth of land in the vill of Frobury of the king in chief by the serjeanty of guarding the king's door. On Edelina’s death Frobury fell as her share to Beatrice, probably the eldest of five daughters and co-heirs, and passed from her to her daughter Philippa the wife of William de Nevill, who in the middle of the 13th century was stated to be holding half a hide in Frobury of the old enfeoffment by the serjeanty of guarding the door of the queen's chamber. 2.2 In 1249 Philippa de Nevill granted it in free marriage to William de Wintershull who had married her daughter Beatrice and from this date Frobury continued in the Wintershull family for about two centuries. William obtained licence to impark his wood of Frobury, which covered an area of 10 acres, in 1260, and died in 1287, leaving as his heir his son John. Beatrice, however, continued to hold the manor, and presented to the chapel of Frobury in her widowhood during the episcopacy of John of Pontoise (1282–1304). On her death it passed in accordance with her wishes to her second son Walter, who in 1310 released his interest in it to his younger brother Edmund (recorded as the chief taxpayer of the hamlet of Frobury in the 1327 Lay Subsidy, paying 5 shillings compared to the next highest payment of 18d (Mitchell-Fox and Page 2014, 36), but it ultimately reverted to Walter or his heirs for his grandson. Thomas died seised of a messuage and half a hide of land in Frobury in 1387, leaving a son and heir Thomas. Thomas son and heir of the last- named, who succeeded to the manor in 1400, died twenty years later leaving no issue, and his property was divided between his two sisters and co-heirs, Joan the widow of William Weston, and Agnes the wife of William Basset. Frobury fell to Agnes and passed from her to Thomas Basset, probably her son, Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1457. Thomas Basset the younger, probably the son and heir of the above-named, dealt with the manor in conjunction with his wife Alice in 1482, and died ten years later, leaving a son, Richard Basset who died in 1509, his heir being his son Thomas, aged twelve. The manor, however, continued with Juliane widow of Richard. In January 1511 she married as her second husband a certain John Wintershill and had issue by him two daughters, Alice and Juliane. She died at Winchester in 1534, and her husband, John Wintershill, continued to hold the manor until his death in 1545, when it passed to Joan wife of William Unwin, only daughter of Juliane by her first husband, her son Thomas having apparently left no issue. The following year William and Joan sold the manor to William Paulet Lord St. John, and from this date it has followed the same descent as the manor of Kingsclere, the owner in the early 20th century being Lord Bolton (Page 1911, 249 -267). 2.3 After becoming part of the Paulet estates at least, the farm would have been leased to tenants. The Lay Subsidy returns of 1586 recorded only three people pay tax on lands at Frobury; John Smith, gent. With £6 worth of land paying 8s (£6/8s), John Camber 40s/2s 8d and Elizabeth Hunte, widow, 20s/16d. One man, James Knight, paid 8s tax on goods worth £8 (Davey 1981, 79). 2.4 In the 1665 Hearth Tax assessment, the tithing of Frobury consisted of 16 properties, five of which had only one hearth and so were not chargeable. The house with the greatest number of hearths was the property of Mister Chamberlaine which had seven hearths whilst the houses of Walter Dicker and Nathaniel Kent had five and four hearths respectively (Hughes and White, 1991, 178). At this stage it is not possible to identify with certainty which, if any of these, represents Frobury Farmhouse. 2.5 Whilst the manor remained with the Paulet family, Frobury was being held under a lease of 99 years determinable on the decease of three lives in the early 19th century. In 1807 the leasehold was put up for sale by auction, the sale particulars describe the principal lot, the core of the farm, as having a ‘Farm house, two barns, stables and outhouses’ with almost 238 acres of land of which 131 acres were enclosed, the remaining land included 31 acres in the common meadows, areas of coppice and downland (HRO 69/702/H7). Further lots included areas of meadow and 60 acres in Fropark and Hile Coppices. 2.6 The earliest detailed map consulted is the Kingsclere Tithe map of 1842 (HRO 21M65/F7/133/2). (Figure 1). This shows the farmstead with a loose courtyard group with buildings to three sides of the yard and probably consisting of the two barns and a stable described in 1807. The farmhouse does not appear to have been accurately drawn as it is shown as a rather wide and short range within no indication of the cross-wing. At this date Frobury was a farm of a little under 179 acres (HRO 21M65/F7/133/1). 2.7 The sequence of 25” Ordnance Survey maps between 1872 and 1911 show minor alterations in the farmstead group but little evident change to the farmhouse (Figures 2-4). However, probably in the 1950s the two large extensions were added, the 1961 6” map lacks the detail but the extensions are probably present. The 1976 1:2500 map (Figure 5) clearly shows them at that date together with the clearance of much of the historic farmstead to the north-east of the house (the existing cottage would appear to be a conversion of a 3 bay aisled barn but little historic fabric is now visible inside the building) and its replacement with two large sheds further north, one of which survives and has been further enlarged. 3.0 DESCRIPTION & ANALYSIS 3.1 Frobury Farmhouse is included in the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest at Grade II. The building, added to the List in January 1953, is described as: C16, C18, C20. A T-shaped timber-frame with cladding of the middle date, altered and extended in recent times; 2 storeys, irregular fenestration. Tile roof hipped but with a tile- hung gable to the south. Walling is of red brickwork, with some exposure of the frame on the north side. Recent casements and porch. Within, the massive framing is partly- exposed. Exterior 3.2 The principal elevation of Frobury Farmhouse faces north and consists of a projecting cross-wing to the west (right) with a hall range aligned east-west (Figure 6).