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Summary

Description

Circa 1780-1800 farmhouse and detached now (2008) largely L-plan steading. 2-storey, 3-bay, rectangular-plan farmhouse with further single storey and attic bay and mid-later 19th century 2-stage, distinctive conical-roofed rear tower housing rare water closet. Single storey porch with cornice and stepped blocking course; attached ancillary structures including gabled dairy. Whitewashed rubble and harl with droved and stugged ashlar quoins; eaves course; some raised margins and cills; tower of harled red brick with mutuled cornice.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: symmetrical principal elevation to S with widely-spaced bays, porch at centre with window to S and door on return to right. Set back bay to right raised in brick with piended dormer window. Rear elevation to N with tower breaking eaves at centre.

ANCILLARIES: small single storey, gabled dairy projecting from rear elevation of E wing of farmhouse with single storey piended range immediately to E and further 4-bay piended wing at SE. Both piended ranges with corrugated roofs.

Timber sash and case windows, predominantly 12-pane (all boarded up at time of site visit). Graded slates to farmhouse. Ashlar coped skews, coped ashlar gablehead stacks with polygonal cans.

INTERIOR: good interior with original room plan largely in evidence. Low ceilings, panelled shutters, deep ingoes, simple cornices to ground floor principal rooms. 6-panel and boarded timber doors.

Flagstones at entrance. Room to rear leads to tower press lined with boarded timber and timber shelves. Semicircular timber stair. 1st floor bedrooms with simple painted timber fire surrounds, one with cast iron horseshoe fireplace, the other boarded up. Room to rear leads to tower water closet encased in timber (possibly valve closet type) with boarded timber interior with tiny circular earthenware washhand basin. Kitchen with tall boarded timber dado, flagstone floor and later small range. Leads to flagstoned dairy/larder with slate shelf and timber shelf above and probable laundry with evidence of base of copper boiler.

BOUNDARY WALLS: to South, some remaining sections of high rubble wall to former orchard.

STEADING: larger complex of agricultural buildings now truncated to form predominantly L-plan survival with good cartshed and granary range. CARTSHED AND GRANARY: rubble with some tooled ashlar margins. Some openings blocked. 4 segmental cart openings to (E) courtyard elevation. W elevation with small eaves openings with sliding boarded timber panels with fixed glazed panes above. Slate roof, piended to N. FURTHER RANGE: wide gabled elevation with blocked openings to courtyard (N) elevation. S elevation set into sloping ground with gables with loft openings flanking circa 1900 gabled projecting wing.

Statement of Special Interest

An important early farmhouse with an unusual tower water closet addition to the rear and a good cartshed and granary range. North East Fife has a particularly rich arable agricultural heritage and its post-Improvement period farms form a major part of the area's architectural and landscape character.

Probably dating to around 1780-1800 Wormit Farmhouse survives largely externally unaltered with its widely spaced bays, windows set close to the eaves and traditional glazing pattern. The distinctive tower to the rear with its careful detailing is unusual and the water closet it houses is a particularly rare survival. It is likely that this was added some time in the mid to late 19th century and it appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1893-5.

The interior layout of the farmhouse retains its traditional plan and, as a consequence, much of its character. It is unusual to find the survival of the demarcation between the working and polite areas of the farmhouse so clearly indicated. At Wormit, the working areas have boarded timber doors and flagstoned floors as well as some boarded timber dados, whereas the polite areas have timber floors and timber panelled doors. The dairy/larder and laundry rooms were vital ancillary rooms which add to the interest and understanding of the farmhouse.

Ordnance Survey maps show that the farm buildings were once considerably more extensive and formed a near-complete quadrangle complex which included a horse mill. Although much of this does not survive, the remaining structures include a particularly fine cartshed and granary range.

An orchard was located to the south of the farmhouse and some fruit trees remain along with some sections of high rubble wall.

References

Bibliography

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