South Wood Farmhouse

Details

COTLEIGH ST 20 SW 11/3 South Wood Farmhouse 22.2.55 - II* Farmhouse. Late C15 - early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. Local stone and flint rubble with Beerstone ashlar detail; stone rubble stacks and chimneyshafts, some topped with C20 brick; thatch roof. Plan and development: the main block faces east and it has a 3-room-and-through- passage plan. At the left (south) end is the former kitchen with a large gable-end stack. Behind this kitchen is a newel stair and a small unheated room (probably a pantry) in a short rear projection. The passage between the former kitchen and hall is now blocked to rear. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage and includes a curing chamber alongside. At the right (north) end is an inner room parlour with projecting gable-end stack. An unheated 1-room plan service wing projects at right angles to rear of the inner room parlour and overlapping the upper end of the hall. This includes a large newel stair from the upper end of the hall. At the front of the passage there is a 2-storey porch. The remains of a rear porch have been incorporated into C20 outshots across the back of the main block between the 2 rear wings. The main block is the historic core of the house. Most of the original roof survives here and it indicates that the inner room end was originally 2 storeys and the rest was open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. Inner room and hall chimneystacks were probably added in the late C16. The hall was floored over in the early C17. The service end was probably already floored over but was rebuilt in its present form with the rear staircase and unheated room in the mid C17. This was probably in 1655, the date on the front porch. The rear service block was added at the same time. This 1655 refurbishment appears to have turned the house round. Formerly, it seems, the house faced towards the lane and there is the remains of an early C17 porch on that side. In 1655 a new porch was built on the garden (east) side and since then this has been the main front. House is 2 storeys. Exterior: regular but not symmetrical 1:1:2 window front of mostly mid C17 Beerstone ashlar windows with ovolo-moulded mullions. The 2 C17 ground floor windows have hoodmoulds. The first floor window at the right end is a C20 casement containing rectangular panes of leaded glass and the ground floor window below has been converted to a C20 French window behind a contemporary conservatory. The porch is gabled with shaped kneelers, coping and apex finials. Its outer arch is a Tudor arch with moulded surround and chamfer-scroll stops. There is a projecting dripcourse directly above and above the first floor window is the 1655 date plaque. The porch has benches each side and the passage front doorway contains a late C19 part-glazed 4-panel door apparently in a smaller opening than the original. The main roof is gable-ended. The stair wing has a half-hipped roof and the service block is gable-ended. The back of the main block and the rear wings include more C17 windows, most of them Beerstone with ovolo-moulded mullions although there is an oak 3-light window over the passage rear doorway and it has chamfered mullions and contains rectangular panes of leaded glass. Behind the rear outshot is the roofless remains of the early C17 porch to the passage rear doorway; its outer arch has an oak frame with a cambered head and ovolo-moulded surround. Good interior: the C17 kitchen (on the lower side of the passage) has chamfered and step-stopped axial beams. Here there is a massive Beerstone ashlar fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel, the oven is relined with C19 brick. The newel stair rises round a post and includes, at first floor level, a grille of C17 oak balusters. The hall/dining room the other side of the passage has a large Beerstone aslar fireplace with a chamfered and slightly arched oak lintel. There is a seat on the left cheek which includes a doorway through to a curing chamber. There is a blocked ash raking hole below the seat. This is an unusal feature to be found in such a well-appointed room. The ceiling here has a flat ground on which is an early C17 single rib pattern of ornamental plasterwork enriched with a series of the same moulded motif; a fleur-de-lys with rosettes. In the parlour no ceiling beam shows either. The fireplace here is Beerstone ashlar with oak lintel and chamfered surround. The service block has plain square-section crossbeams with upended plank joists, originally providing a flat ceiling like those in the hall and parlour. Broad newel stair from hall to the first floor. On the first floor there is a C17 doorframe between kitchen and passage doorframes; it is chamfered with step stops and contains an ancient plank door hung on strap hinges with fleur-de-lys finials. There are a couple of other old plank doors on the first floor. A blocked Tudor arch doorway shows between passage chamber and porch. The kitchen and parlour chambers have small Beerstone ashlar fireplaces with oak lintels. The original roof survives over the hall and parlour. It is 3 bays. The partition between the hall and parlour chambers is a closed truss and there is an open truss over the hall; it is a face-pegged jointed cruck with chamfered arch braces, cambered collar and at the apex there is a small triangular yoke and diagonal ridge (Alcock's apex type L1). The roof also contains single sets of curving windbraces. The hall roof including the common rafters, the underside of the original thatch and hall face of the closed truss is heavily smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The C17 truss over the main block kitchen is clean; the bases of the principals are boxed into a partition. So too is the truss in the service wing. South Wood Farmhouse is a particularly attractive and well-preserved farmhouse. Jeffrey de Wrothiall owned the Wood estate in the time of Henry III. After 15 generations had lived there it was sold to a Mr. W. Fry whose great grand daughter married a Mr. Andrews, who was the owner in 1773. Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: ST2085604053

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

86558

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.