House Magazine Spring 2001 Pendean Farmhouse

by Richard Harris

The Museum has cherished the opportunity to make much needed improvements to our interpretation of Pendean Farmhouse, and the grant received as a result of our new status as a museum designated by the Government for the outstanding importance of its collections, has enabled us to do this during the Winter.

As part of the work the Museum has also been able to obtain an accurate date for the building, using dendrochronology, and we now know it was built in 1609.

Chimney

Fig. 1 Pre-war postcard view of Pendean Farmhouse

The Museum has acquired a picture postcard showing Pendean at some time before the War (fig. 1). A charming picture, it shows a small boy on the track in front of the house, and the character of the track, hedge and surroundings are remarkably similar to Pendean's surroundings at the Museum. More importantly, however, the picture shows the original chimney cap in excellent detail. Much enlarged, even individual bricks are clearly visible (fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Detail of chimney cap enlarged from postcard

Based on this photograph, and others that show it less clearly, the chimney was incorrect as we reconstructed it in 1975; it was 4 1/2in too narrow, five courses (12 1/2in) too low, and wrongly proportioned (fig 4).

Fig. 4 Pendean and chimney as reconstructed in 1975

We have therefore rebuilt it in its correct form above the roof line, using 17th century bricks (figs 5 and 6).

Fig. 5 Pendean with its new chimney cap
in January 2001

Fig. 6 Detail of new chimney cap.

Interior

The interior is being substantially altered.

The awkward "ladder' stair has been replaced by a typical early-17th century stair with winders at the bottom, which is much easier to climb and more likely to be an accurate reconstruction.

pendean newly inserted stair

Fig. 6 The newly inserted stair

We are completing the wattle and daub partitions on the first floor, closing the partitions above the tie beams.

We are creating a small "smoking chamber" using evidence obtained and recorded during dismantling but not followed at the time of the reconstruction in 1975.

The interior brickwork of the ground floor infill panels will be limewashed, and the exposed brickwork of the fireplaces will be ruddled and pencilled

The evidence for the oven is being reassessed, and the reconstruction will be changed if necessary.

The building will be fully furnished. Our consultant for this is Victor Chinnery, an eminent expert on the period. Victor helped us originally with the Bayleaf project, and has since applied his expertise to numerous other projects including Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford-on-Avon. He is looking at the furnishing of all of our 17th-century houses - Poplar Cottage, Pendean and Walderton - to try to differentiate between them on the social scale.

Documentary research

Elizabeth Doff, who lives in Singleton, has kindly agreed to carry out research into the documentary history of Pendean. Most of the directly relevant documents are already known, but Elizabeth is following up some new leads and also bringing together evidence to set the social and agricultural scene for the building in the early-17th century. As we now know from dendrochronology, Pendean was built in 1609, and the documents tell us that in that year the property changed hands: the lease was acquired by Richard Clare, a yeoman farmer, so it was almost certainly he who built the house. His father, John Clare, apparently occupied the house until his death in 1619. The Clare family continued to hold Pendean, and probably occupied the house the house, until 1748. When Elizabeth's work is finished, a fascinating tale will be told.

Exterior

Bob Holman, the Museum's gardener, has created garden beds around the house, which will give the opportunity for further interpretation of 17th-century gardens, in addition to those already established at Walderton and Poplar cottage.

Access for wheelchair users is important, and we are very hopeful that we can provide a shallow ramp and entrance platform that will accommodate wheelchairs, without in any way compromising the historical accuracy of the building. Improvements for wheelchair users are currently being planned at several other buildings as well.