Listed Building record MDO13739 - Monks Yard, Child Okeford

A two-storey house built partly of rough greensand ashlar, and partly of brick and partly timber-framed. The eastern part of the building is now a separate tenement. The earliest parts of the timber framing probably date to the first half of the sixteenth century.

MONK'S YARD (83441274), house, facing S.S.E., is two-storied and has walls partly of rough Greensand ashlar, partly of brick and partly timber-framed; the roofs are thatched. The E. part of the building is now a separate tenement. The earliest parts of the timber-framed structure are probably of the first half of the 16th century. The plan does not have the usual characteristics of a dwelling-house and its original purpose is obscure. (1)

National Record of the Historic Environment, 206289 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 81 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(7)Monk's Yard (83441274), house, facing S.S.E., 100 yds. W. of the church, is two-storied and has walls partly of rough Greensand ashlar, partly of brick and partly timber-framed; the roofs are thatched. The E. part of the building is now a separate tenement. The earliest parts of the timber-framed structure are probably of the first half of the 16th century. The plan does not have the usual characteristics of a dwelling-house and its original purpose is obscure.

Above a rubble plinth the timber framework is exposed in the W. half of the N. wall. Two original wall posts, corresponding with roof trusses, have lightly moulded external corbels at the top; pegged to them is a chamfered overhanging wall-plate. Apart from these members most of the original framework in the N. wall was altered and heightened in the 17th century, when a square-headed chamfered timber doorway and two timber four-light windows with ovolo mouldings were inserted; at the same time the W. extremity of the N. front was slightly curtailed, the gabled W. wall being rebuilt in brick above a Greensand plinth. The S. front has four bays, the two middle bays projecting 5 ft. in front of the end bays. The W. bay is of brick above an ashlar plinth; of the middle bays that to the W. is faced with ashlar while the other is brick-faced; the E. bay is of brick. The E. end of the house and the eastern part of the N. wall are modern.

Inside, on the ground floor, the W. bay is spanned by two 16th-century beams with wide chamfers ending in roll-stops. A fireplace and oven against the W. wall must be later than the beams because the oven masonry partly encases the roll-stop chamfers; the beams are probably coeval with the original parts of the framed N. wall, while the fireplace was presumably built at the same time as the W. wall. The next room, corresponding with the stone-fronted bay of the S. front, is spanned by three 16th-century beams with roll-stops as before. To the W. these beams rest on a partition, presumably original, which separates the two rooms; to the E. they are supported on inserted members. The adjacent bay to the E. has been considerably altered and its original form is lost; at present it contains two back-to-back fireplaces and a large brick chimney-stack. It is probable that the W. fireplace was originally much deeper and that its bressummer supported the ends of the ceiling beams in the second bay. In the E. bay the ceiling is supported on deep—chamfered beams that are probably of the 17th century. The stairs, in the N. part of the third bay, have no early features and the first floor is unremarkable. The roof rests on four trusses, that to the E. being set at a lower level than the others and retaining traces of smoke blackening; this suggests that the E. bay may have been single-storied until the 17th-century floor was inserted.'

Record last edited

Oct 21 2022 4:57PM