Sea Hill, Christow, Exeter

Summary

A former farmhouse, originally built as an open hall house. The fire smoke was originally vented through the roof, but later a chimney was inserted along with other improvements. It would have been the home of relatively wealthy farming families, as indicated by the good quality carpentry still in evidence within the building. A series of alterations from the 16th and 17th century included the introduction of a first floor with bedrooms and the conversion of a rear attached agricultural wing into a kitchen with bedrooms above. From the later 20th century, it has been restored and updated.

Reasons for Designation

Sea Hill, Christow, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural and Historic interest:

* as a pre-1700 vernacular farmhouse given an embellished architectural style in the C16/C17, this is a noteworthy example of an evolved historic dwelling and the evidence of change illustrates the changing needs of the owners across the period;

* a house of medieval origins with an historic layout, soot blackening to the medieval parts of the roof structure and early features that survive particularly well: the front lateral stack is an uncommon feature of Dartmoor farmhouses;

* as a building which retains a substantial proportion of pre-1700 fabric and high-quality carpentry and joinery of the C16 and Cl7, including three plank and muntin screens.

History

This former farmhouse was probably built in the C14 or C15 and originally arranged as an open hall house. By the C16 or C17 it had its current three room and cross passage plan, and the relative affluence of the owners is evident in the quantity and high quality of the interior joinery and stonework. There are three well-crafted plank and muntin screens in the building, although one is said to have been brought in from another house in the parish. The enhancements to the house were carried out in a number of phases and included the insertion of a granite lateral stack to the hall (the lounge) and the construction of first floor accommodation. The first-floor chambers to the upper and lower ends were inserted earlier than that over the hall, as indicated by the internal jettying and the soot blackening to the hall faces of first floor partitions. An earlier stair is thought to have been located in the rear corner of the inner room (the study) to the high end. Sooted rafters over the inner room indicate that the closed partition is a secondary feature. Unusually, the lower and upper end bays appear to have remained unheated.

The tithe apportionment of 1841 shows the 'Seahill' farmstead in the ownership of Samuel Archer and occupied by William Archer. The holding included a Homestead and Garden, and a number of fields and orchards on land spread across the parish. The tithe map shows Sea Hill with an adjacent outbuilding to the south-east, broadly on the footprint of Arran Cottage. There are three outbuildings to the rear in a courtyard arrangement. Seahill is the only building shaded pink to denote it as a dwelling.

By the time of the 1888 Ordnance Survey Map the adjacent building to the south-east (now Arran Cottage) was attached to Sea Hill and had probably been rebuilt. A rear agricultural building also appears to have been brought into the house as a kitchen wing and has a sealed granite fireplace in 2025. The 1904 OS map has better detailing and shows the outbuildings to the rear and front, with the south-east corner of Sea Hill open into the attached building. The south end of which was divided off and in agricultural use as a shippon or linhay. The soot blackened medieval roof over the hall house was cut back and a new roof at a raised height was erected in around 1925.

In the mid-C20, the adjoining building to the south-east passed into separate ownership as Arran Cottage and the passage between the two houses was sealed. In the late C20 and early C21 Sea Hill was refurbished, bedrooms were built above the kitchen wing, a new staircase built at the lower end and modern facilities were introduced including new windows, adaptations to the kitchen wing and some reconfiguration to the first floor.

Details

A house, formerly a farmhouse, of late medieval date with C16/ C17 remodelling and C20
alterations.

MATERIALS: constructed of cob and stone rubble, and rendered, with a projecting granite ashlar front lateral stack with a granite ashlar shaft. The roofs are covered in slate (formerly thatched) and the medieval oak roof survives truncated below an interwar timber roof. Interior joinery, including three plank and muntin screens, is of oak. The room above the porch is timber framed. Most windows are modern timber replacements.

PLAN: built on an east/west orientation on a site that is elevated to the north. The house has a medieval three-room and through passage plan plus a modern staircase to the west (lower) end, a rear kitchen wing, and a projecting front porch with room over. Originally an open hall house, the lower end may have always been floored but with the hall (the lounge) and inner room (upper end/ study) open to the roof timbers. The inner room had a deep jetty projecting into the hall; the lower end also had a jetty which was later sawn off. A rear kitchen wing is at right angles to the lower end and is a C19 conversion of a farmbuilding, possibly a shippon. The house adjoins Arran Cottage (not listed) at the south-east corner.

EXTERIOR: of two storeys with an asymmetrical window front. The porch, to right of centre, is formed by a projecting gabled first-floor room carried on granite monoliths. The main entrance has a plank door (braced and ledged to the interior) to the passage with pegged oak jambs and head. To the left is a lateral stack heating the hall with a rounded former bread oven. There are two C20 timber ground floor openings to the left of the stack, one sash and one casement. There is a casement to the right of the porch. There are first-floor casements to the left of the stack, to the porch room and to the right of the porch. There is a granite brace buttressing the west corner of the house from the stone boundary wall. The rear elevation has two casements. The rear kitchen wing has C21 garden doors set within a rubble elevation below a platband, and rendered above the band with casements, all under a hipped roof. There is a late C19 outshut to the east elevation of the kitchen wing that was refurbished in the C21.

INTERIOR: the screen between passage and lower end to the right, reported to be reused from elsewhere, has been opened out to a C20 cloakroom and staircase with stone steps down under the stair. The passage/hall screen has diagonal-cut stops and the remains of a doorframe with a cranked lintel, and an inserted window to the left with coloured leaded glass.

The hall (lounge) ceiling has a chamfered and stopped axial beam and joists with scratch-moulding to the soffits and sides. The sawn-off ends of a former lower end jetty at the lower end of the hall are visible. The fireplace has chamfered granite jambs and lintel, and bread oven to the left. The relieving arch is of well-cut masonry that rises above, and is hidden behind, the adjacent C17 crossbeam, suggesting that the stack may have been added before the hall was floored. The screen at the higher end has chamfered muntins stopped off at hall bench level and is over-sailed by a deep jetty with chamfered joists with runout stops. There are covered mortices in the screen for a former fixed bench. The inner room ceiling has large plain joists and to the back wall is a former doorway, now a casement, the left jamb of which appears to incorporate a jowled post next to the site of a former staircase.

The modern staircase to the lower end apparently replaced a similar stair further to the rear. At first floor level, the cob front wall of the house opens into the room above the porch, which has an unchamfered purlin to each roofslope. Framed partitions flank the room over the hall, both with a doorway inserted in them. In the partition to the lower end, to the right of the modern door, is a former door with a rounded head. The partition above the inner room jetty has a steel tie passing through it. The medieval roof structure survives in the rooms above the hall and inner room and purlins continue across the landing and bathroom at the lower end.

The ridge of the medieval roof (below a later roof) is sooted and has been sawn off to the lower (right) side of the lower end framed partition. There is no smoke blackening on the lower end side, or the right end wall in which the foot of a hip cruck remains embedded. Above the hall, the rafters are pegged over the diagonally set ridge and smoke-blackened. There are also sooted rafters over the inner room, beyond the left-hand framed partition (these could not be inspected in 2025).

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

85625

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Websites
Heritage Gateway - Devon and Dartmoor HER: Sea Hill, Dry Lane, Christow, accessed 28/02/2025 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV40354&resourceID=104

Other
Laithwaite, M. Unpublished notes on Sea Hill, referenced in 1987 revision to List entry.

End of official list entry

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