Passaford Farmhouse

Details

OTTERTON OTTERY ROAD SY 08 NE 3/185 Passaford Farmhouse - GV II* Farmhouse. Late C16-early C17, possibly earlier core, refurbished in the late C19, (probably 1886, the date of the nearby court of farmbuildings). Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble or cob stacks topped with C19 brick; thatch roof. C19 brick and weather-boarded outshot with tile roof. The house faces south with a 3-room-and-through-passage plan with the service end room at the left (western) end. However this does not appear to be a typical late medieval arrangement. The usual service end room to the left is a parlour. It and the passage show no features earlier than the C19 and are separated from the hall by a thick cob crosswall but it is unlikely that this section was added then. It must be considered original. The inner room end is deeper than the rest of the house. The inner room itself is shallower than the hall but it includes a 2-storey outshot projecting to rear which extends a short distance behind the hall to include a winder stair turret there. The inner room is a kitchen and the rear outshot was probably a dairy. The room above the putative dairy was converted to a bathroom in the late C19. This unusual arrangement of inner room kitchen and lower end parlour can not be proved to be late C16-early C17 because of the late C19 modernisation but is thought to be so. The lower end and inner rooms have gable end stacks, the latter projecting. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. Late C19 outshot on right (eastern) end. Main house is 2 storeys. Irregular 5-window front of late C19 casements with glazing bars and contemporary 4- panel door left of centre to front of through passage. Up to circa 1970 the rear roof was carried down over a pentice to rear of the hall. Roof is gable ended. Good Interior: Where exposed all the early features are consistently late C16-early C17 in date. None show in the passage or service end parlour. The hall has a 16- panel intersecting beam ceiling. The beams are relatively narrow with very deep chamfers, more like contemporary Somerset beams than those in Devon. Some of them retain traces of ancient colour; enriched chevron patterns of orange and yellow. Directly in front of the stair turret one of the beam soffits has been cut into and the joists in the adjoining panel interfered with as if there was once a stair here; an apparently unnecessary arrangement. Along the crosswall at the upper end of the hall there is a length of C17 oak small-field panelled wainscotting containing a frieze of chip-carved lunettes. It is set well off the floor as if it provided a back over an upper end bench. At the other end the stack intrudes into the room and interrupts the ceiling. The fireplace is blocked by a C20 grate but part of the oak lintel is exposed. On the first floor the massive chimney breast looks as though it is built of cob. The inner room kitchen has a soffit-chamfered and step-stopped crossbeam, the same finish as the oak lintel of the fireplace. The fireplace itself has been lined with C19 brick and has a contemporary rear oven with a cast iron door bearing the local founder's name, Gosling of Otterton. The heavy oak bench fixed to the hall crosswall in this room may be the one removed from the other side. Most of the windows throughout the house appear to occupy original embrasures and there are signs of a blocked window to rear of the hall. Some of those on the first floor have solid walnut window seats. Most of the joinery detail is C19. The roof over the inner room is 2-bays and although the truss is plastered over it is apparently a jointed cruck. The lean-to roof over the dairy outshot behind may have been raised in the C19. There is no sign of any truss over the rest of the house and the roofspace is inaccessible. Passaford is an attractive and interesting farmhouse with an unusual and intriguing plan form. The house is of further interest being built so close to another important early farmhouse, Pavers (q.v.), which stands the other side of the lane.

Listing NGR: SY0904287651

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

86386

Legacy System:

LBS

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