Middle Venton Farmhouse

Details

SX 69 SE DREWSTEIGNTON VENTON

4/132 Middle Venton Farmhouse

GV II*

Farmhouse, former Dartmoor longhouse. Early or mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. Smallish blocks of roughly-shaped granite laid to rough courses and large quoins, cob wall tops, front of house section is plastered; granite stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof, replaced with corrugated iron over the shippon. Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passge plan Dartmoor longhouse facing south-east and built diagonally across a gentle slope The rear and uphill end are terraced into the hillslope. At the uphill left end is the inner room parlour with a projecting gable-end stack. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. The shippon is now used for storage. Since the roof structure was completely replaced (probably at a higher level) in the C17 most of the evidence for the earlier development of the house has been removed. Nevertheless it is likely that it began as an open hall house probably heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was inserted in the mid or late C16. The inner room was refurbished, and probably enlarged, as a parlour in the mid C17. The hall was floored about the same time and was thereafter used as a kitchen. In the C20 the passage front doorway was blocked and the present doorway inserted into the parlour (which is now used as the kitchen). 2 storeys. Exterior: the house section has an irregular 3-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. Present doorway towards left end contains a C20 door behind a contemporary gabled and slate-roofed porch. The ground floor right window of this section is blocking the passage front doorway, The shippon section to right is exposed granite. There is a cowdoor immediately to right of the blocked passage front doorway. Towards the right end there is a window, probably a dung hatch over a drain hole. The right end wall of the shippon has 2 slit windows and there is a hayloft loading hatch in the rear wall. The rest of the rear wall is blind except for the passage rear doorway. The roof is gable-ended. Interior: the oldest feature in the house is the early or mid C16 oak doorframe from passage to hall; it is round-headed with a chamfered surround. Hall has a large granite fireplace with an oak lintel which is soffit-chamfered and has one pyramid stop. The oven was relined with C19 brick. The hall crossbeam is soffit- chamfered with step stops. The inner room fireplace has a granite fireplace with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel and the crossbeam here is roughly soffit-chamfered. The ground floor partitions are stone rubble, those on the first floor are timber framed. The first floor partition between hall and inner room chambers may incorporate an original truss. Otherwise the roof from end to end is carried on C17 A-frames with pegged lap-jointed collars. The shippon has roughly-finished crossbeams. Middle Venton is one of the minority of Dartmoor longhouses where the shippon is unmodernised. It is still essentially how it was when used as a cow byre although the drain has been buried.

Listing NGR: SX6949391065

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

94926

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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