Building record 6666/1/1 - Middlemore Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Early C18 with additions of c1800 and later alterations. Red brick, much with burnt headers in Flemish bond.

{1} Farmhouse. Early C18 with additions of c1800 and later alterations. Red brick, much with burnt headers in Flemish bond. Slate roof with stone-coped gables and brick ridge and end stacks. 3-unit plan. 2 storeys with cellars and attics. EXTERIOR: 5-window range at first floor (2 blocked) of uPVC windows under brick lintels. Blocked windows to center left and right have gauged brick flat arches with stone keyblocks. On ground floor from left a french window, gabled C19 porch and part-glazed door, a 3-light window with stuccoed lintel, door within glazed porch and 2-light window under gauged brick flat arch with stone keyblock. Floor band and brick eaves. Farmbuilding range (qv) adjoins on right end whilst on left end there is a single-storey addition of c1800 and 2-light window in the attic. To rear a 2-storey addition of c1800 under roof forming catslide with the original range. This is a 3-window range with door to centre left. 6-panel door and window to single-storey addition. INTERIOR. The sitting room ( best parlour)has early C18 plaster raised and fielded panelling and overmantel with shouldered corners and floral decoration. Wooden chair rail and dado, fitted corner cupboar and 4-panel door with HL hinges. C19 fireplace.Generally there are boxed bridging beams and 2- and 4-panel doors with HL hinges and some plaster cornicies. Stick baluster staircase. Kitchen has modified open fireplace and west gable extension has open fireplace and bake oven. Early C18 fireplace with eared surround on first floor. Attics have boarded partitions with 2-panel and plank doors and roof with clasped purlins and coupled rafters. Cellars under rear range and under sitting room, this last of stone witn brick vault. A good quality farmhouse with unusual survival of best parlour fittings. It forms with its farmbuilding range (qv) a complete steading and together they represent an early enclosure of a midland clay parish.

{2} Middlemore Farm comprises a farmhouse and adjoining range of barns constructed of red brick and built in the first half of the eighteenth century. The farmhouse has a later extension to the north side which in turn has a single storey extension at its west end containing a bread oven and water heater or 'copper'. The house remains largely intact with alterations and additions throughout reflecting its continuous use for over 250 years. The barns remain fundamentally as originally built, though contain may later minor alterations and additions.
Though no maps survive prior to 1779 and there is no reference to the property in the Inclosure Award of 1752, the style of the house suggests a date of 1720-1740. The barns are later as they butt join the east end of the house. This implies relative chronology only, and stylistically they appear to be contemporary with the house. The eastern end of the range is a later addition and appears to be of mid nineteenth century date. To the south of the barns are the remains of stock yards enclosed by a series of brick walls. Most of these are now very fragmentary but appear to be of nineteenth century construction, though they may be replacements of earlier walls.
The development of the farmhouse can be divided into three main phases, though the development appears to be rather more complicated. Phase one consisted of a single rectangular block with three rooms to each floor, the stair well and a cellar at the west end, and probably had a single storey extension on the north side above the cellars that extend the whole length of the north side. Barns 1, 2 and 3 appear to be contemporary with this phase. Phase two comprised the alteration of the extension to the north side which may have involved simply re-building the north wall which is currently bowing outwards. The windows also appear to have been altered, especially the tops of the windows including those of the cellars. Phase three saw the construction of the single storey barn at the west end of the long range of barns and the addition of the barn at the west end of the house with the 'copper' and bread oven.

{3} Middlemoor farm was probably constructed between 1752 and 1779 and was planted for livestock farming in a formerly arable landscape. Middlemoor Farm was depicted as such in 1885 but previously in 1827 (Bryant's map) it was called Micklemoor farm. Prior to that Eyre and Jeffrey's map of 1779 depicted it as Mickle Moor House.

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 3/10003 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> Prentice J., 2000, Building Recording At Middlemore Farm, Daventry, Northamptonshire, (checked) (Report). SNN100005.

<3> Soden, I., 1999, Archaeology at Middlemore Farm, Daventry: Desk-Based Assessment, pp.1, 4 (checked) (Report). SNN74260.

Record last edited

Dec 17 2018 11:07AM