WEST BENTWITCHEN FARMHOUSE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1214052
Date first listed:: 24-Nov-1988
List Entry Name:: WEST BENTWITCHEN FARMHOUSE
Statutory Address:: WEST BENTWITCHEN FARMHOUSE

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2005-09-10
Reference:: IOE01/14766/16
Rights:: © Mr Hedley R. Hooper. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1214052
Date first listed:: 24-Nov-1988
List Entry Name:: WEST BENTWITCHEN FARMHOUSE
Statutory Address 1:: WEST BENTWITCHEN FARMHOUSE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: WEST BENTWITCHEN FARMHOUSE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Devon
District:: North Devon (District Authority)
Parish:: North Molton
National Park:: EXMOOR
National Grid Reference:: SS 73076 34008

Details

NORTH MOLTON BENTWITCHEN SS 73 SW 10/132 West Bentwitchen Farmhouse - II Farmhouse. Circa 1500, altered probably in the early to mid C17. Probably early to mid C20 alterations and minor additions. Rendered stone rubble and cob. Gable-ended asbestos-slate roof (probably formerly thatched), with lean-to Welsh-slate roof over porch and dairy. Monopitch corrugated-iron roof over scullery. Stone square stacks with weatherings; later render and red brick tops. Plan and development: Circa 1500 3-room and cross passage plan, facing south-west (ground falls to left). Former late-Medieval open hall house, consisting of hall with projecting full-height-gabled square bay to front, cross passage and service room (present kitchen) to left and inner room to right. Formerly open to the roof (probably continuously from end to end with rooms divided by low partitions). C17 alterations included the insertion of the first floor, insertion of the axial stack to the left-hand end of the hall (backing onto the cross passage), insertion of the integral end stack to the service room and external end stack to the former inner room. Winder staircase (with small pantry behind) at rear of former cross passage, probably also inserted in the C17 (present staircase appears to be largely C19). It is probable the C17 flooring was carried out in stages, the hall remaining open to the roof after the hall stack was inserted and the end rooms floored (note high lintel to hall fireplace). The hall was probably floored last, later in the C17. The projecting full-height square bay would also have been added as part of the C17 remodelling, perhaps to compensate for the loss of space in the hall after the insertion of the stack. Eaves raised at some time, possibly as part of the C17 remodelling. Lean-to dairy at rear of upper (right-hand) end of house, probably a late C18 or early to mid C19 addition. Probably late C19 or early C20 alterations include the lean-to porch to cross-passage entrance and small scullery set back to left. Wall between hall and inner room partly removed, probably in the C20. 2- storeys with 1-storey additions. Exterior: Asymmetrically-fenestrated front, with 4 windows to first floor and 3 to ground floor; C20 2-light wooden casements (larger ground-floor window to bay, C20 but probably in original opening). Cross-passage doorway in left-hand angle of projecting bay, with C19 boarded door and lean-to slate-roofed porch. Projecting weathering to left of right-hand ground-floor window, possibly indicating a blocked door or window. One-storey scullery to left with C20 half-glazed door to right. Interior: Hall with part of C17 chamfered spine beams, the front beam with stepped runout stop. C17 open fireplace to left with dressed stone jambs, high cambered chamfered wooden lintel (chamfer returning to jambs) and segmental brick arched bread oven with cast-iron door. Inner room to right with C17 chamfered spine beam; C17 open stone fireplace to right (reduced in width at some time) has chamfered wooden lintel with stepped runout stops. Old boarded door to rear of inner room with strap hinges, leading to dairy at rear, which has barred windows with internal shutters. Left-hand ground-floor room (kitchen) with C20 cased steel beam and old open fireplace to right with unchamfered wooden lintel and segmental stone relieving arch. Winder staircase at rear of former cross passage, mainly C19 but possibly incorporating some C17 work. Substantial remains of late Medieval smoke-blackened roof. Medieval truss (possibly jointed crucks) at lower (left-hand) end of hall (in front of stack) with mortise and tenoned cranked collar and morticed and tenoned apex. Pairs of threaded purlins, surviving over hall at least, and diagonally-set ridge piece, surviving over hall and inner-room end (sawn through between hall and inner-room end, possibly when truss removed at this point). Smoke-blackened rafters (with some laths) over hall and inner-room end. C20 roof structure above old roof.

Listing NGR: SS7307634008

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 398776
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.