Coombe Farmhouse

Details

SX 78 NW DREWSTEIGNTON

7/29 Coombe Farmhouse

GV II*

Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, renovated circa 1970. Main block is plastered granite stone rubble with some massive boulder footings at the upper end and some cob on the wall tops, rear block is plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks topped with C20 brick, the hall has its original granite ashlar chimney shaft extended in brick; thatch roof. Plan and development: low L-shaped building. The main block faces north-north- west, say north, and is built down the hillslope. It has a 3-room-and-through- passage plan with the inner room terraced into the uphill right (west) end. It is small and unheated, and probably was a dairy. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. The long service end is now one room but was 2 rooms before circa 1970. The inner room has a disused front lateral stack and the end room has a gable end stack. An unheated 1-room plan block (now the kitchen) projects at right angles to rear of the inner room. The original late medieval house was apparently open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was inserted in the mid or late C16 and the house was progressively floored over from the mid C16 - mid C17. The house may originally have been a Dartmoor longhouse but there is no actual evidence for this in the lower end. The 2 rooms here are probably the result of a mid C17 refurbishment when the end room was given a stack and became a parlour. The room between it and the passage was apparently unheated until the C19. The hall probably served as the kitchen from the mid C17 until circa 1970. The rear block is an early or mid C17 extension and its former function is not known since there were then 2 unheated dairies or store rooms in the main block. House now 2 storeys throughout. Exterior: irregular 3-window front of late C19 and C20 casements, most with glazing bars, the first floor windows are half dormers. The front passage doorway is roughly central and now contains a C19 plank door. Roof is half-hipped to right and gable-ended to left. Similar fenestration to rear. Good interior: on the upper side of the passage there is an oak plank-and-muntin screen beyond the back of the hall. The fireplace is granite ashlar with a soffit- chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel and its side oven was refurbished in the late C19. The passage chamber jetties into the hall flush with the face of the chimneybreast. The fireplace, oak screen and jettied chamber are mid or late C16. The stone rubble crosswall at the upper end of the hall is an original low partition and it includes an oak shoulder-headed doorway. The wall is lined with C17 small field panelling above the level of the missing upper end bench. The window seat is lined with similar panelling. Cupboard in front wall has C18 fielded panel door. The probably mid C17 axial beam is roughly soffit-chamfered. The inner room joists are C20 replacements. On the lower side of the passage is a stone rubble full height crosswall. No beams show in the lower end. The end fireplace is granite with a plain oak lintel. The other fireplace was rebuilt circa 1970. The rear block has no exposed beam on the ground floor and its 2-bay roof includes a true cruck roof truss. The roof between the lower passage and the inner room end is original. It contains 3 face-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars and small yokes at the apexes (Alcock's apex type L1). Alongside the rear passage doorway one of the cruck feet shows right down to ground level. The whole of this roof, including common rafters and underside of the thatch is smoke-blackended from the open hearth fire. The roof over the service end is inaccessible but the bases of straight principals show suggesting replacement C17 A-frame trusses here. Coombe is a good multi-phase Devon farmhouse with some good features from all phases of its historic development.

Listing NGR: SX7197689660

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

94825

Legacy System:

LBS

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