Little Clyst William Farmhouse

Details

PLYMTREE ST 00 SE 3/125 Little Clyst William Farmhouse - - II*

Farmhouse. Early - mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, some C19 alterations. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, some C19 brick patching; stone rubble and cob stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof, replaced with corrugated asbestos to rear. Plan and development: L-plan house. The main block faces north-north-west, say north and is built across the hillslope. It has a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. At the left (east) end is an inner room parlour with a projecting gable-end stack; it is now used as a kitchen. Next to it is the former hall (now the dining room) with an axial stack backing onto the passage. The other side of the passage is the former kitchen with an axial stack backing onto the right (west) end room, an unheated outhouse. A 1-room plan dairy or buttery block projects at right angles to rear of the left end. The 3-room-and-through-passage section of the main block is the historic core of the house. The roofspace is not wholly accessible but it seems that the original house was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partition screens and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room was floored over very soon-after the house was built and the chamber jettied into the open hall. The service end was also floored over at an early stage. In the mid - late C16 the passage was floored over and the hall chimneystack was inserted. The house was transformed in the early - mid C17, probably in more than one phase but the evidence is unclear as to the sequence of events. Both the inner room and the service end were enlarged, given new chimneystacks, and converted to parlour and kitchen respectively. The hall was floored over and the dairy/buttery block was added. Some time later an outhouse was built onto the kitchen end and it was much rebuilt in the C19. Farmhouse is 2 storeys with C20 conservatory to rear of the hall and a secondary lean-to outshot to rear of the right end. Exterior: irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars, the first floor windows have thatch eyebrows over. There are now 3 front doorways. The central one is the passage front doorway. It contains a late C19 - early C20 4- panel door behind a C20 slate-roofed porch. To left a doorway has been inserted into the inner room parlour; it contains a C20 part-glazed door under a contemporary thatch-roofed porch. To right is a doorway into the outhouse containing a plank door under a slate-roofed hood. The main roof is gable-ended to left and hipped to right. The dairy/buttery block roof is hipped. Interior is good: on the lower (former kitchen) side of the passage part of an oak plank-and-muntin screen has been exposed. The unusually wide muntins suggest an early date, maybe it was an original low partition screen. The features of the kitchen are C17, an axial beam of large scantling is chamfered with runout stops and the large fireplace is stone rubble with a chamfered oak lintel with scroll-nick stops. In the hall the fireplace is blocked by a C19 grate with an Adams style timber chimneypiece. The crossbeam here is moulded with scroll stops. At the upper end there is evidence of the jettied inner room chamber. Underneath is another early oak plank-and-muntin screen with wide planks and muntins; maybe it was an original low partition screen. Tile muntins are chamfered with diagonal cut stops. The arched head of the doorway has been slightly altered. The parlour has a moulded axial beam with scroll stops but the fireplace here is blocked. The dairy/buttery crossbeam is chamfered with scroll stops. Around the house is a great deal of old joinery detail. The roof of the main house is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. Those each end are C17. The kitchen one is inaccessible. The truss over the parlour has pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collar; there is a similar truss over the rear block. There is a closed truss over the inner room side of the passage. The roof timbers over the parlour nearest the jetty crosswall is lightly smoke-blackened wherease the hall roof, including the hall faces of the 2 crosswalls are heavily smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. This is an attractive and interesting multi-phase Devon farmhouse with well- preserved late medieval features.

Listing NGR: ST0662202698

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

86881

Legacy System:

LBS

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