Dalditch Farmhouse

Details

EAST BUDLEIGH DALDITCH LANE, Knowle ST 08 SW 5/64 Dalditch Farmhouse - - II Farmhouse, former manor house. Early or mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, refurbished in C19 and modernised in 1976. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, mended and walls raised with C19 brick; stone rubble and brick stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; slate roof. 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-south-east, say south. The inner room is at the right (eastern) end and its projecting end stack was built in 1976. The hall has a front lateral stack and the service end room has a large end kitchen stack. In fact there was a fourth room at the service end but this was demolished in 1976. The 2-storey service outshot to rear of the inner room was probably added in the C17 and remodelled in the C19. 2 storeys. Irregular 5-window front of late C19 and C20 replacement casements with glazing bars. All the windows are different and some have low segmental arches over. The front passage doorway now contains a late C19 panelled and part-glazed door. The roof is gable-ended. At the left end the lower parts of the cob wall from the demolished fourth room remains on the front with tile coping. The rear outshot includes a fixed pane window containing small rectangular panes of leaded glass. There is a C19 tile-roofed pentice across part of the back. Good interior: on the hall side of the passage there is a late C16 - early C17 oak plank-and-muntin screen. The muntins are chamfered but the lower section has been replaced. The present door is C19 but the original doorway remains to the left; it has a Tudor-arched head and chamfered surround. In the hall, at the upper end, is the remains of the original full height crosswall. It is large-framed with an oak plank-and-muntin screen at the bottom. The screen is unusual. The headbeam is soffit-chamfered over the panels with masons mitres. The chamfers however do not continue down the edges of the muntins. Instead they are chamfered but with diagonal cut stops top and bottom. The lower stops are set high enough to accommodate a bench below. It has a C19 doorway cut through it and most of the panels are missing. However it includes one jamb of a shoulder-headed doorway. There were originally 5 panels to right of this doorway and the central panel remains. It has a mid C16 painting of a saintly figure, probably St. Leonard. He is cloaked with a halo and his left-hand is raised in a gesture of benefaction. The timbers around are painted with fronds, flowers, strawberries and the like. The traces of ancient colour continue up the studs of the framing; the right one includes a rosette. The fireplace is blocked. The original was probably C16 but since the stack does not project it might have been rebuilt. The hall was floored in the late C16 - early C17 with a 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling. The beams around the 2 panels at the lower end of the hall have broad soffit-chamfers whilst those around the higher status upper end are richly moulded. The joists are set at right angles to those in the adjoining panels and may be originally have been exposed. The ceiling however is early and the cob plaster is backed on water reeds rather than wooden lathes. The inner room appears to have been rebuilt in the C17, at the same time as the outshot. The crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with double bar and scroll stops. The outshot may have housed the original stairs. The service end also appears to have been rebuilt in the C17. However there is no crossbeam exposed and the fireplace is blocked although its massive size can be appreciated from a cupboard to right which has been cut into its side. There is a blocked oven on the left side. The demolished room beyond was late C16 - early C17 and a soffit-chamfered and pyramid- stopped crossbeam was removed in 1976. No early features show on the first floor although some C16 or C17 oak framing may be preserved behind later plaster. In the C19 the walls were raised and a new king post truss roof erected. Despite the C19 alterations Dalditch is an interesting C16 and C17 farmhouse. The painted screen is of particular interest. Since it clearly represents a saint it might be pre-Reformation in date. In 1381 Bishop Brantyngham authorized the Vicar of Budleigh to officiate in St. Leonards Chapel at Dalditch. The painting in the hall therefore might well represent St. Leonard and the hall could have been used as a chapel. Sources: Beatrix Cresswell. Notes of Devon Churches in the Deanery of Aylesbeare (1920) p 55. There is an annotated plan of the house, a scale drawing of the screen and painting by John Thorp and some photographs from 1976 in the archives of Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit.

Listing NGR: SY0479983548

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

86264

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cresswell, B F, Notes on Devon Churches in the Deanery of Aylesbeare, (1920), 55

End of official list entry

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