Dymond's Farmhouse

Description

This information is taken from the statutory List as it was in 2001 and may not be up to date.

SOWTON BISHOP'S COURT LANE SX 99 SE 1/36 Dymond's Farmhouse - 18.11.76 - II

Farmhouse. Built 1676, probably for Richard Bevis, the son of the then owner of Bishop's Court. Mainly roughcast cob on stone footings, with a brick service end extension. Hipped thatched roof. Four-room house in a straight block; the main entrance leads into the hall with inner room to the left of the hall, and a kitchen and another service room to the right; there is no indication of an original passage. The hall ceiling extends over the present passage, which might have been divided from it by a low screen. The service end was extended, or a fifth room rebuilt, in brick in the C19, with a barn to the rear. Hall heated by a shallow external rear lateral stack; inner room with an internal end fireplace (shaft dismantled); kitchen heated by a prominent external lateral rear stack. Main stairs now between hall and inner room; secondary stairs to rear of service room.

2 storeys.

Front: irregular 5-window range; the eaves line runs at a higher level over the hall and inner room; first floor windows to these chambers are tall C19 2-light casements under pronounced brick window arches; kitchen and service-room chambers with 2 and 4-light casement windows, mid C19, both under eyebrow eaves; brick extension with small 2-light casement window. Ground floor: 2-light C19 casement windows under pronounced window arches to inner room, hall and kitchen; service room with 3-light: C17 stone window with ovolo moulded surround and mullions, the outer lights blocked. 3 doors, that to the left with slated canopy. The main door, leading into the hall, has a datestone 'RB 1676' with pretty foliage and floral decoration, set above it.

Rear: the hall chamber extends beyond the line of the rear wall and is separately gabled, and supported by brick piers (possibly replacing wooden posts), now engulfed in later leantos that extend along the whole length of the house. 2 C17 windows, both of 2 lights with ovolo moulded stone surrounds and mullion, one (entirely blocked) to service room, the other to the chamber above kitchen. Right- hand elevation with 2 brick buttresses.

Interior: as described by Dr Alcock; hall ceiling divided by ceiling beam, each compartment with central plaster rose and corner florets; service end with 2 ceiling beams, one with run-out stops. Rough stud and panel screen between service room and rear stairs. Rear barn with straight principals to roof, crossed, morticed and pegged at apex, the collars bolted.

The farmhouse has remained almost completely unchanged since Dr Alcock's visit, N W Alcock, 'Houses in an East Devon Parish', Trans.Devon Assoc., 94 (1962), p.221, p1.19, 20, 21; figs.15, 18.

Listing NGR: SX9862992645

Content

This is part of the Series: IOE01/1171 IOE Records taken by Ernie W King; within the Collection: IOE01 Images Of England

Rights

© Mr Ernie W. King. Source: Historic England Archive

This photograph was taken for the Images of England project