Stocken Farmhouse
From Lacey Green History
click Stocken Farm for other records of the farm
The history of the house of Stocken Farm by Joan West
It was this house that set me off on a quest to discover when it was built and fuelled my research into the local history in general.
My husband John and I, with three young children, had moved into it in January 1970 after living in Coronation Cottage no 2, one of the farm cottages, since our marriage in September 1961. John had been born in the farmhouse, his parents being Dick & Hilda West
We knew we wanted to alter certain things in the house. One thing being to put in central heating and also to tidy up some of the parts that had been added over the years. We lived there for a year while we decided what to do.
We always knew it was old - the enormous chimney was a giveaway anyway. But then the house had been Grade II listed some years before. (No-one had come to inspect it. Dick & Hilda had just received a letter saying it was listed and emphasizing that the chimney and the windows must never be altered.)
It became one of those projects which like 'Topsy' just grew and grew. John and I took on taking it apart with Dell Bros lined up to put it together again.
The Walls are old brick. One single layer with no foundations. At some point render had been applied to the outside.
The Walls Inside. Hilda had skilfully wallpapered the walls in the two main front rooms, both 14 feet square, with fireplaces back to back under that big chimney. It was obviously very draughty as every door in these two room had over them heavy curtaining hanging from rods. I was told later my Daisy Smith who had lived there in her teens that their candles would be blown out by the draughts.
We started work in the room on the north side, which Dick and Hilda kept for best, living every day on the south side room which was used as both living and dining room. Hilda would put on a small electric fire in the 'sitting room' for about three weeks before visitors came to get it aired.
Someone before Hilda, obviously having a major damp problem, had fixed batons to the walls and stretched canvas over them to make an internal wall, on which there were by our time several layers of wallpaper. This space between the outer wall and the canvas provided a wonderful sanctuary for mice. There were holes which gave them access into the house.
We decided that we must put in a dampcourse
We then proceeded to take the canvas, batons and wallpaper out through the window into a trailer parked on the lawn.
With the walls now back to brick, it was clear to see the outline of the original windows which were a good foot wider on each side and considerably narrower than the current ones which "Must never be altered"!!!!! There were remnants of shutters left attached to the backs of the 'new' Georgian style window frames.
This left us with a good 3 inch gap all round the ceiling - so we pulled down the ceiling.
This was a dirtier job than we expected as the cavity between the ceiling and the floor above (the depth of a large beam) was filled with chaff. This descended on us, together with the plaster and no doubt souvenirs from the various creatures that had made their homes in it.
Realising what a fire & health hazard this was we eventually took down all the ceilings throughout the house. We filled many more trailer loads out on the lawn.
In front of the chimneybreast was a fireplace which although modern was far from up to date. We took it out together with the remains of a couple of others behind it to eventually reveal the original oval brick fireplace in perfect condition, the bricks at the back being part of the chimney. There was a thick beam over it.
Andrew Oliver, who we knew was an expert in all things wooden, came to look at the beam for us. It was as hard as iron, with certain large holes in it. Andrew was sure that it had been part of a ship, which in Tudor times would had been brought up the Thames to be broken up. He was even able to suggest what the specific holes could have been made for.
There was a modern door to the right of the fireplace which opened onto a way through to the other front room with a similar door. Onto this area a porch had been added. The bricks had not been bonded on, but built straight up against the existing. There was a window on one side which had been bricked up.
We next turned our attention to the living/dining room on the south side.
Once again surprises were revealed when we got the walls back to brick and had taken down the ceiling.
The shape of the original front facing window was shown not surprisingly to match that of the room the other side of the chimney.
What was surprising was that the large beam spanning the room went from the wall above the fireplace crossing the room to rest on a window on the side of the room.
Even more surprising was that this window had originally been a door.
Also there was a bricked up window high in the wall beside the present window.
It is hard to visualise this house when it was simply two rooms with a central chimney, but it became obvious that everything behind this these rooms were later additions
It seemed very likely that the blocked up door (now a window) was the original entrance and the window high in the wall beside it (now bricked up) gave light to a ladder to the upper floor.
There had been other major changes to this room.
Our way into it was via a door from a later addition, so would not have been there originally. And in the corner by that new door was a cupboard in which Hilda kept items to use on the dining table and newspapers.
Removing this cupboard revealed that it had once been an oven as the bricks leading into main chimney were still visible.
Dick and Hilda had installed a new modern fireplace in this room, not that long before they moved to 'Cotswold' their new bungalow across the field. Hilda was quite upset when we took it out but we wanted to see what was behind it.
The huge original fireplace was still there. Much of it was fragile. The irons spanning inside it on which pots would hang were embedded in bricks that crumbled at a touch. Inglenook seating was perished. We improvised by putting some new seating at the sides and left it as it was. It was gratifying that the fire we lit drew beautifully. Sorry Hilda!
THE OLD ADDITIONS Still in use before we started altering things.
We do not know in what order the other parts of the house were added - quite possibly several at the same time.
Pretend that you are in the Living/dining room as it is now and go out through the door in the back side corner of the room.
Straight ahead is a short corridor which goes to the back door.----- In the photo on the left you can just see the entrance to the lean-to from which the eggs were sold. also in this lean-to were an egg grading machine, meat safe, fridges and freezers. Also a collection of wellington boots and working coats.
Ok. Come out of the living/dining room into the passage to the back door again.
On your right now is the door into the kitchen.
The kitchen is ten feet square and is an addition attached to the living/dining room or we thought it was!
In fact with the plaster off the brickwork revealed that is was indeed next to the living/dining room but in no way was it attached.
The bricks had been laid straight up against the original bricks. Over the centuries there had been considerable movement and bearing in mind there were no foundations that was not surprising. At the base of this addition the bricks were just toughing but they gradually moved away and by the time this 'so called join' had reached the ceiling of the room above there was a crack that had become at least three inches wide.
There had been a pump in the kitchen and also one in a wash-house outside, fed from an underground tank outside which collected water off the roof. (There were altogether six of these tanks on the farm).
Mains water had been laid-on to the house in 1934, by the landlord Ernest Smith when Dick and Hilda took the tenancy. (They eventually bought the farm in 1948). It was probably then that the pump in the kitchen was taken out.
When this kitchen had been added is unknown, nor is it known when they stopped cooking over the fire and in the oven in the front main room.
Dick and Hilda had installed an Aga when they owned the house. One of the first in the village I was told. A chimney had been tagged onto the outside of the house to accommodate this.
Ok. Imagine coming out of that living/dining room again and immediately turn left.
This will take you past a cupboard on your left built into a space behind that old oven.
On your right is a door shutting off the stairs which wind round in a anticlockwise direction. Beneath the stairs is another built-in cupboard.
Past the door to the stairs is a small hall. There are several doors. On the left, mirroring the one from the living/dining room is the door into the sitting room. Straight ahead is the door that leads down into the cellar and next to that a passage in which all manner of things are stored from cattle medicines in a cupboard to household tools on shelves. Back opposite these is the cupboard under the stairs.
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Lets go upstairs.
At the top of the stairs is a small landing. The wall straight ahead follows the curve of the chimney stack.
On the right are two doors. One to a bedroom above the sitting room. The other to a bedroom behind that one, which is in a later addition.
On the left is a door to a bedroom above the living/dining room
There is not another door on the left, but a short passage which leads through to a bathroom, installed by the landlord in 1934, from a former bedroom, above the kitchen, so also in a later addition.
In the short passage a linen cupboard has been built with bi-fold doors.
The bedroom above the sitting room, at the front of the house,had a bricked up window on the north side We removed the bricks and found the iron- hard frame still perfectly sound. There was a fireplace in this room.
The bedroom behind that, which was in an added part of the house, had a lower floor so you had to step up or down into it.
So there we were, living in a shell of a house with three young children, being frequently told that we needed our brains tested, but we now knew what we wanted to do.
First - tackle the damp. We had everywhere tested for damp. The machine went off the top of the scale even in the fireplaces. We knew it was bad but - that bad?!!
THE SOLUTIONS
We called in specialists to put a dampcourse into the walls of the house, bearing in mind that they were single brick with no cavity and no foundations.
The internal walls had to be plastered with a special mix that would protect them from any damp in the that might rise because there were no foundations or soak into the single, no cavity, brick walls, and the cellar walls were also lined.
The whole house had to have new electrics wired in.
The whole house had oil-fired central heating installed with a tank in the back yard. Previously the Aga in the kitchen had been converted from solid fuel to oil, its tank being just outside the kitchen window.
The Fireplaces. We had revealed the two original fireplaces.
The beam over the fireplace in the living/dining room was not original as it had been replaced a few years previously when it had burnt out. Dick and Hilda always left the fire shut down but just alight at night. One morning after a gale had raged all night Hilda found a picture that hung above the fireplace laying on the floor.
She called John, who noticed that the string by which it had been suspended was charred through. He touched the wall where it had hung and the wall caved in. The old beam bricked in the wall was alight. John put it out with a fire extinguisher, but just to make sure it was completely out, called the fire brigade asking if someone could come to check that it was totally out.
Two fire engines with complete crews came from Princes Risborough within minutes. Yes indeed, John had put it out. An easy call out for the brigade! Beers all round! The farm were preparing turkeys for Christmas at the time. We had several phone calls from customers, who having seen the fire engines, rang to ask if the turkeys were safe. We were able to reassure them that we were not planning to sell their Christmas dinner ready-cooked.
The two big fireplaces had been tested at separate times and both had drawn beautifully, so we were very pleased.
But when we lit them both together they drew so much air up the chimney that within minutes the Aga, (now converted to oil) had gone out.
The Solution. A wood-burning stove was fitted into the big fireplace in the dining room (no longer a living/dining room), which could be controlled enough to solve the problem.
One major decision was to extend the sitting room.
The original front sitting room was 14 feet square. We decided to incorporate the two areas behind it into the room.
This meant removing the two doors in the little hall by the stairs, one of which led down to the cellar, the other to the passage where the cattle medicine cupboard and the shelving were.
The cellar steps were filled in and that wall removed, taking with it the cattle medicine cupboard which opened into the passage but went back over the steps as they descended to the cellar. This left the wall of the passage with the shelves now in the sitting room. (see above left)
Having done that we realised that the bedroom above this added area had a lower floor, leaving the new extension to our sitting room with a different ceiling height from the rest - so we took out the floor to the bedroom above it. It was some months before this was put right and for quite a while anyone entering that bedroom would have fallen right down into the sitting room.
A new entrance to the cellar was made in what had been the cupboard, the steps going down under the sitting room. This
necessitated moving the sitting room door. We had built a box on which we put our television to give enough headroom for the new steps to the cellar.
We had decided that we would remove the lean-to by the back door and extend out to make a large hall, with a new door, facing south, a downstairs toilet roughly where to old back door had been and a door at the north end into a utility room. The exit to the utility room into a small area with an outdoor toilet on the right and an office on the left which extended beyond the house.
It wasn't until we went to join the new hall extension to the house that we realised that its
flat roof was level with half way up the window that was part way up the stairs. A new half depth stair window had to be made.
The photo below on the right shows the windows in place in the new hall/room which replaced the old back door and lean-to where the eggs were sold.
The footings that had been dug for the new extension now gave this old house some foundations and cavity walls to support it.
The granary was pulled down, which seemed a shame, but it was no longer in use and was in a bad way inside.
The above photo shows Hilda West with an egg customer on the back path before the alterations. On the left was the back door and the lean-to, both of which were taken down. On the right are the side wall of the bull-pen and the granary also taken down.
One wall of the bull pen was taken down, leaving a courtyard outside the new door.
With one wall of the bull pen removed a courtyard was left outside the new extension. It was paved with York stone with a narrow bed for plants by the remaining walls.
Next we turned our attention to the chimney and the roof.
Although the preservation order stated that the chimney must not be altered we knew its shape had already been changed from earlier photos.
Also that the overhang of the roof had been reduced for economic reasons when it had needed to be repaired.
The Courtyard
The Front Garden Pond
No sooner was the work on the house finished than the Main Drainage System was brought to the village. It was a long run from the house to the Main Road with only just enough fall. Dell Bros continued straight from working on the house to work on that.
