Details
CHRISTOW DRY LANE, Christow
SX 88 NW
2/100 Smith Hay
GV II
House. Late medieval with late C16/early C17 remodelling and substantial alterations
of the circa 1940s. Stone rubble, the first floor rendered ; 1940s red tiled roof
with sprocketted eaves, gabled at ends ; C20 stone rubble projecting stack at left
end, axial stack with granite shaft, C20 rear right lateral stack.
Plan: A high quality 3 room and through passage plan house, heavily altered in the
circa 1940s in a loosely Vernacular Revival style when the house was re-roofed over
the old roof, refenestrated and 4 gabled wings were added at the rear ; one of the
wings may be a remodelled stair wing. The floor of the house was dug out at the same
time involving adjustment to the ground floor partitions. The house originated as an
open hall plan, entrance to right of centre. The roof timbers are painted black
which makes it difficult to follow the late C16/early C17 remodelling sequence, but
the inner room was floored before the hall and the chamber over the inner room
jetties into the hall. The hall, with the stack backing on to the passage, has
exceptionally rich carpentry and joinery detail and probably had a newel stair
adjacent to the stack before this was replaced by a stair external to the rear wall.
The inner room, which may have functioned as a kitchen in the C17, is large, and has
probably been extended in the C17, stone newel stair adjacent to stack. The smaller,
lower end room is largely modernized. The 1940s alterations expanded the house to
the rear with 4 irregular gabled wings and considerable joinery and carpentry repair
was carried out at the same period.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 6 window front with 4 gables to the front; fine
C16 arched oak doorframe with repaired jambs to right of centre to the cross passage,
C20 door at extreme right. C20 fenestration of 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-light windows.
Interior: Remarkable high quality carpentry and joinery. The granite ashlar back of
the hall stack, with plinth and cornice, is exposed in the passage, the remainder of
the hall/passage partition made up of a repaired section of plank and muntin screen
with a shouldered doorway. The lower end screen is almost entirely C20 exposed
joists in the passage, those to the rear projecting through the plank and muntin
screen and into the hall. Richly-carpentered hall with an open fireplace with a
chamfered timber lintel and granite jambs. Higher end plank and muntin screen, the
muntin chamfers stopped off at hall bench level with a shouldered doorframe to the
inner room. An exceptional domestic bench end, possibly re-sited, incorporates a
carved owl finial. Deep higher end jetty with chamfered joists ; the hall ceiling
has 2 moulded cross beams with runout stops and exposed moulded stopped joists, some
apparently re-sited. Elaborate system of joists immedately in front of the fireplace
lintel where a trimmer beam divides 2 sets of chamfered and moulded joists. Beam
between rear wall and fireplace jamb chamfered towards the passage, moulded to the
hall. C17 2 plank door in rear wall leading to stair. The inner room has a
chamfered, stopped crossbeam ; exposed joists and an open fireplace with a timber
lintel and 2 bread ovens; stone stair adjacent to stack. The lower end room has
1940s carpentry and joinery including a timber chimneypiece with carved saints. Re-
sited oak mullioned window with chamfered stopped mullions and some C17 stained glass
in rear wing.
Roof: Side-pegged jointed cruck construction with a hip cruck at the right end and a
closed partition above the hall/inner room jetty. Black paint has obscured the
evidence of smoke-blackening and there has been considerable repair and replacement
of the subsidiary timbers.
White's Devon (1850) records that "John Stooke, in 1691, left Smyth's Hay farm for
charitable uses, etc., in this and other parishes. It comprises 26A., and is let for
about £26 per annum. Out of this yearly income, the vicar of Christow receives about
£11, and the poor have five 4d. loaves weekly. Of the remainder £5 belongs to the
poor of Ashton, and £5 to the rector of Trusham." p.188.
Exceptional internal carpentry and joinery.
Listing NGR: SX8306385207
