Higher Manor

Details

PETER TAVY CUDLIPPTOWN
SX 57 NW
9/82b Higher Manor
- II

House, originally longhouse. Circa early-mid C16, possibly extended in C17, altered
in C19 and C20. Stone rubble walls, gable ended roof, slated to house, corrugated
sheeting over former shippon. Rubble stack projecting from right gable end; rebuilt
rendered axial stack.
Plan: Originally longhouse with shippon at left end with through-passage, hall with
newel stairs in projection at its rear and inner room to its right. Hall stack
backs onto passage in customary longhouse position but there is evidence for a
lateral fireplace at the rear of the hall which presumably was earlier - an unusual
but not unknown feature for a longhouse. The equal size of hall and parlour and the
length of the shippon suggest a remodelling of the building in the C17 and it is
possible that the hall stack was moved at this time. The inner room became a heated
parlour with an outshut built to its rear to accommodate service functions. At an
indeterminate stage the rear door of the passage was blocked. In the C19 the house
was turned into 2 1-room plan cottages each self-contained with new front doors made
and the shippon entirely separated. The Cottages became unoccupied and the building
reverted to agricultural use in the first half of the C20. Probably at this stage
the newel stair turret was destroyed. In the late C20 it was converted back to one
house with the plan much as it had been in the C17 although the shippon was adapted
to semi-domestic use and an outshut built at the rear of the hall. The eaves were
also considerably heightened.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3 window front to house of C20 metal frame
windows. C20 glazed door to right of centre into inner room. The shippon is to the
left with a considerably lower roof-line. It has a wide doorway to the right with
C20 doors and a large C20 window to the left on the 1st floor. Gable end of shippon
is slate hung with original slits left exposed. The rear wall of the shippon is
slightly buttressed out at its higher end.
Interior: The hall preserves the most early features. Its fireplace has a chamfered
wooden lintel and probably chamfered granite jambs. Built into its right side is an
oven. To the right of the fireplace is an interesting arrangement of features
apparently connected with domestic functions; built into the rear wall is a hollowed
stone which drained to the outside of the house and had a piscina-line function;
below it to the left a granite basin is built into the floor extending under the -
oven projection adjoining the fireplace. The former fireplace at the rear of the
hall now forms a recess and has chamfered jambs of dressed pieces of granite. At
the higher end of the hall in the rear wall the first step of the newel stairs is
visible. The doorway to the inner room has a shouldered head wooden frame partially
rebuilt.
Although considerably altered by recent modernisation this building is recognisable
as a longhouse with several features of interest.
Source: Devonshire Farmhouse III - S. R. Jones: Trans. Deran Assoc.103, 1971,
(Interpretation differs slightly).


Listing NGR: SX5202779077

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

92814

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Transactions of the Devonshire Association in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, Vol. 103, (1971)

End of official list entry

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