Stone Farmhouse

Details

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/64 Stone Farmhouse

II*

Farmhouse, former Dartmoor longhouse. Early or mid C16 with later C16 and C17 improvements, renovated circa 1970. Plastered granite stone rubble including sections of coursed blocks of massive granite ashlar, parlour block may be cob; granite stacks, one with its original granite ashlar chimney shaft, the others topped with C20 brick; thatch roof, replaced with slate to rear, over the shippon and rear wing. Plan and development: T-shaped building. The low main block faces south-east. It has a 3-room-and-through-passage. Dartmoor longhouse plan and is built down the hillslope. The inner room is uphill at the right (north-eastern) end. It has a gable-end stack. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. The former shippon, at the downhill left end, was converted circa 1970 and now contains a garage and bedroom. Rear block projects to rear at right angles to rear of hall and passage. It has an axial stack backing onto (and blocking) the passage rear doorway. A small unheated room at the end is now used as a kitchen but was probably a dairy originally. This is an interesting house with a long and complex structural history. Remarkably the hall is still open to the roof and is said to be smoke- blackened from the original open hearth fire. The inner room was probably floored in the mid-late C16 and the hall fireplace inserted in the late C16. Parlour wing is mid C17 and thereafter the hall was used as the kitchen. C20 extension on right (inner room) end. Only the inner room and parlour wing are 2 storeys. Exterior: main house has a 2-window front of C19 casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway is left of centre and contains a C20 door behind a contemporary flat-roofed porch. Secondary doorway to inner room contains C20 door and contemporary thatch-roofed porch. Main roof and wing roof are gable-ended. C20 garage doorway inserted into shippon and all other windows are c20 without glazing bars. The shippon retains 1 original slit window and the blocked drain hole shows in the end wall. Interior: it is remarkable that the hall is still open to the roof. The bases of true cruck trusses show here and in the passage but the roofspace is inaccessible, hidden by a probably C17 plaster ceiling. Large granite ashlar hall fireplace with plain surround and inserted side oven. Probably C17 oak doorframe with chamfered surround to inner room contains probably C18 2-panel door. Inner room has plain- chamfered axial beam. Fireplace here is blocked by C20 grate. Parlour wing fireplace of granite ashlar with soffit-chamfered and scroll stopped oak lintel. It has an inserted C19 oven. The mid C17 roof carried on 3 A-frame trusses which are lap-jointed onto posts set in the side walls. This is an interesting Dartmoor longhouse, an extremely rare example of a late medieval farmhouse with its hall still open to the roof.

Listing NGR: SX7091090847

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

94860

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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