Building Recording Report

T H A M E S V A L L E Y ARCHAEOLOGICAL S E R V I C E S Littleworth Farm, South Fawley, West Berkshire Building Recording by Danielle Milbank Site Code: LFSF18/115 (SU 3731 8080) Littleworth Farm, South Fawley, West Berkshire Building Recording For Mr and Mrs M. Poole by Danielle Milbank Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code LFSF18/115 September 2018 Summary Site name: Littleworth Farm, South Fawley, West Berkshire Grid reference: SU 3731 8080 Site activity: Building Recording Date and duration of project: 12th June 2018 Project coordinator: Danielle Milbank Site code: LFSF18/115 Summary of results: This report documents the recording of a farm cottage of very late 18th or early 19th century date in its setting. The cottage seems to be structurally sound though superficially in poor condition. It was subject to a full photographic survey, with floor plans and notes on the structure and features, and set in context by desk-based study including map regression. Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at West Berkshire Museum in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. All TVAS unpublished fieldwork reports are available on our website: www.tvas.co.uk/reports/reports.asp. Report edited/checked by: Steve Ford 10.09.18 Steve Preston 10.09.18 i Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, 47–49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading RG1 5NR Tel. (0118) 926 0552; Fax (0118) 926 0553; email [email protected]; website : www.tvas.co.uk Littleworth Farm, South Fawley, West Berkshire Building Recording by Danielle Milbank Report 18/115 Introduction This report documents the results of building recording at Littleworth Farm, South Fawley, West Berkshire (SU 3731 8080) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Ms Claire Welburn of Fowler Architecture and Planning, 19 High Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5AF, on behalf of Mr and Mrs M Poole, Shefford House, East Shefford Hungerford, RG17 7EF. Planning consent (18/01288/FULD) has been sought from West Berkshire Council for the demolition of the cottage and farm buildings on the site, and the construction of a replacement dwelling. Consent is likely to be subject to a condition requiring a programme of building recording to be carried out at the site. This report documents the results of the building recording. This is in accordance with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF 2018), and the Council’s policies on the historic environment. The fieldwork was undertaken by Danielle Milbank and Brandon Wrey on 12th June 2018. The site code is LFSF 18/115. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited with West Berkshire Museum and a copy sent to the Historic England Archive in due course. Location, topography and geology The site is located in South Fawley, 7km south of Wantage in the north-west of West Berkshire (Fig. 1). Littleworth Farm is located 1.5km to the west of the village centre, on the north side of the (unnamed) road, and is surrounded by agricultural land. The buildings are on relatively flat ground, with the land to the rear of the cottage sloping gently upwards to the north, and the buildings comprise the cottage, with a lean-to on its north side, and a separate barn incorporating a garage at the west of the site (Fig. 2). The site lies at approximately 169m above Ordnance Datum and the underlying geology is mapped as Valley Bottom Head (clay, sand, silt and gravel) (BGS 2006). 1 Historical Background According to Domesday Book, King Edward the Confessor held the very minor manor of South Fawley (Faleslei) in 1066 and William I in 1086 (Williams and Martin 2002, 139). The overlordship remained in the Crown, the manor being held from the 13th century by the service of half a knight's fee. The estate passed through private hands and in the 18th century belonged to Henry Vansittart, and then to Bartholomew Tipping of Chaddleworth. The land subsequently formed part of the Woolley estate. To the south-east of the site, the nearby South Fawley Manor House, now Listed, was constructed in 1621. North Fawley (as Great Falley) is shown on Speed’s map of 1610 (not illustrated), though South Fawley is not. At the time of Rocque’s Map of 1762, the Manor house of South Fawley is shown (schematically) with no other farms or buildings represented in the location of Littleworth Farm. A 1771 award exists for the land but is not interpretable, and the site lies just to the west of the edge of the map of the enclosure map of 1790. The site first appears in detail on the 1843 tithe map (Fig. 3). Here, the house and a barn are clearly shown, with a porch on the north side of the building. The barn is a smaller building than today’s, to the west of the current barn, and on a south-west to north-east axis. Between the cottage and the barn, a roughly square pond is shown in blue. The award relating to this shows the plot containing the cottage as belonging to James Taylor and the barn and land to the west to Robert and Thomas Bund. The First Edition Ordnance Survey of 1879 (Fig. 4) shows a building which is rectangular in plan, on an east-south-east to west-north-west axis, and is likely to represent the existing building. The porch at the rear is not shown. To the west, a yard area has outbuildings along the north-west and north-east sides, though neither of these are in the same location and orientation as the current barn. The pond appears slightly larger than on the tithe map but this detail is not necessarily reliable. Little has changed by the time of the 1882-1883 Ordnance Survey map (not illustrated), though the pond feature between the house and the barn, shown as an irregular- shaped shaded area in 1879, is depicted as a more rectangular shape., and the cottage and barn remain unchanged. The 1899 map shows the building subdivided into two, and the west end shows either a lean-to or (more likely) that the building has been extended by one room at each end. In 1912, the Ordnance Survey plan is unusually indistinct and hard to decipher, but appears to show the cottage unchanged, and a further long rectangular outbuilding, probably a barn, has been added along the south- west side of the yard. The 1913 map shows the west end of the building extending further to the south, though this could be a cartographic quirk. 2 By the time of the Ordnance Survey of 1960, the three outbuildings around the yard have been removed, and nothing appears in their place. This is the last map to show the pond. The 1971 map shows the cottage subdivided into two halves (west and east) and a small outbuilding (shed) appears at the immediate west of the house, but detached (in the location of the south-east corner of the existing barn). The 1973 map shows the cottage as one building (not subdivided) and the barn/garage is yet to appear. The 1986 map still shows no barn, indicating it as a relatively new addition. Plans and elevations submitted in support of the mid 1990’s planning application for the extension at the west show the addition of the extra bay, though the window layout differ slightly from what was eventually carried out. The conservatory at the east is not shown, and is a very recent addition. Methodology The building survey was carried out in accordance with guidelines set out by the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments (RCHME 1996) for a Level 2 record. The Level 2 survey comprised a photographic survey, paying attention to the methods of construction, chronological development and alterations, and features of special interest. The building has been recorded photographically using digital media which are catalogued (Appendix 1). The location and direction of view of each photograph are presented on Figures 5 (for exterior photographs), 6 and 7 (interior: ground and first floor). Description Exterior (Fig. 5) The cottage is rectangular in plan and aligned on an east-south-east to west-north-west axis, though for ease of reference the photographs and text will refer to the building as if aligned east-west, with the street front at the south and the rear of the building at the north. The cottage is screened from the road at the south by trees, tall shrubs, and a fence (Pl. 1). The surrounding ground is concrete, with a drive at the west of the house and a yard at the rear. Beyond the yard is a garden with long meadow grass and a small orchard, and a fence at the northern boundary of the site with the adjoining field (Pl. 2). Within the yard at the north of the house is a small wooden timber store, and at the west is the late 20th-century barn/garage of mixed breeze block and timber construction, roofed with corrugated metal (Pl. 3). The house is of two storeys, in rendered brick, with a plain gable end at the west (Pl. 4) and at the east, a gable with a late 20th-century addition of a glass and brick conservatory (Pl. 5). 3 Two square chimney stacks (one at the east gable end of the house and one at the former gable end of the building, both set to the south of the roof apex) of red bricks suggest the building is red brick throughout.

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