Stallenge Thorne Farmhouse Including Rear Courtyard

Details

HOCKWORTHY ST 02 SW 1/72 - Stallenge Thorne farmhouse 5.4.66 including rear courtyard - II* Farmhouse. Dated 1675, parts are probably earlier, and some early or mid C19 modernisation. Mostly plastered stone rubble, probably some sections of cob, and the parlour wing is said to include brick; stone rubble stacks topped with plastered brick; slate roof, probably formerly thatch. Plan and development: courtyard plan house with an unusual layout. The main block faces south-south-east, say south. It contains a 2-room-and-through-passage plan; a large kitchen to right and a hall/dining room to left, both served by gable-end stacks. 2-storey porch in front of the passage doorway. 1-room plan parlour block projects at right angles to rear of the hall/dining room and it has a rear gable-end stack. There is a second rear block parallel and alongside the parlour block which appears to be part of the 1675 build. This double range forms the west wing of the small rear courtyard. The other 2 sides of the courtyard are enclosed by service blocks of late C16 - early C17 date. The east wing includes a through passage to rear of a dairy. This dairy connects with the kitchen. The east wing also overlaps the end of the main block but the angle there was later infilled by a small store. Although the service wings of the courtyard are earlier there is no positive evidence of pre 1675 work inside the main house. It appears essentially a single phase house. However there have been some subsequent minor alterations. The passage has been widened at the expense of the hall/dining room in order to accommodate the early or mid C19 stair. The former stair is thought to have been in the inner rear block to rear of the passage. House and outbuildings are all 2 storeys. Exterior: is good quality, attractive and unusually well-preserved. The main block (south) and parlour (west) fronts are virtually intact from 1675. The main front has an irregular 2:1:2 window front of Hamstone windows with hollow-chamfered mullions and hoodmoulds and containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. Only the first floor window immediately left of the porch has been altered by the insertion of a C19 casement with glazing bars taller than the original window there. The gabled 2-storey porch is most impressive. It has a Hamstone ashlar round-headed outer arch with facetted imposts and a fluted keystone under an entablature with a pulvinated frieze and pediment. Above it is a 3-light mullioned window, and, above that, the date plaque which has a modillion frame, hoodmould and is inscribed WC 1675. The gable has shaped kneelers, coping and an apex finial identical to that of nearby, Court Hall Farmhouse (q.v). The passage front doorway is original and contains an oak doorframe with moulded surround and urn stops with a particuarly fine contemporary 12-panel door containing strap hinges with fleur-de-lys Tinials. The main block roof is gable-ended to left and is hipped to right over the C19 addition. The parlour wing contains a single Hamstone mullioned window on each floor. Other windows to the service blocks are C19 and C20 timber casements. There is however in the rear block a first floor late C16 - early C17 oak loading hatch doorframe into the courtyard. Good Interior: and it is well-preserved. The kitchen is a large room with a 4-bay ceiling of soffit-chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams, the last half beam well proud of the kitchen stack, which is built of stone rubble with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The kitchen/passage crosswall retains the remains of an oak plank-and- muntin screen. There is a C19 stair in the passage. The hall/dining room was originally of 3 bays, the ceiling beams are unstopped with ogee soffit-mouldings. The fireplace here is blocked. The rear parlour is lined with bolection panelling in 2 heights. It includes a blocked doorway from the hall/dining room with moulded entablature. The inner long side wall includes a round-headed and backed crockery cupboard with shaped shelves. It has a C19 chimneypiece and grate. This interior treatment of the parlour could well date to 1675 but, if so, is a bit early. Nevertheless, it is a very good example of late C17 interior decoration and the box cornices on the crossbeams are contemporary with the panelling. On the first floor the kitchen chamber fireplace has a bolection-moulded chimneypiece. Otherwise there is C19 joinery detail on the first floor except for the base of straight principals to the roof trusses; their scantling is large enough to suggest that 1675 A-frame trusses are there in the roof. The northern and eastern wings appear older: the former is now open to a roof of A-frame trusses missing mortise-and-tenon collars and including an oak crank-hoaded doorframe at first floor from the east wing which includes soffit-chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams. From the left end of the front a C19 garden wall, built of stone rubble and including a garden gateway with stone rubble gate posts surmounted by Hamstone ball finials drops down to a terrace revettment as it returns across the front of the front garden. Stallenge Thorne, mentioned as Stanlinz in the Domesday Survey, is one of the most attractive farmhouses on this Blackdown Hills border with Somerset. Furthermore it has a most interesting plan and layout with high quality interior features. Source: Devon S.M.R.

Listing NGR: ST0276920895

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

95921

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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