Stocken Farmhouse

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.

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.

Photo shows the outline of an original window. The other side showed the same.

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"!!!!!

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.

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.

Beam resting on window

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 the window had originally been a door.

Also there was a bricked up window high in the wall beside the present window.