Summary
A C17 former cross-passage house, with possible earlier origins, refurbished in the late C20.
Reasons for Designation
The Longhouse, Strete, Devon, a C17 cross-passage house, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: it is a C17 house that retains a significant proportion of early fabric;
* Architectural interest: the plan and decoration is highly characteristic of south-west vernacular building traditions;
* Degree of alteration: the former cross-passage plan and room arrangement is still legible and the building retains several interesting internal features including a smoking chamber, first-floor stud-and-plank screen and monochrome scraffito decoration;
* Group value: with various listed buildings in the centre of Strete, including Glen Cottage and the adjoining house, a mid-C17 building with probably earlier origins (Grade II).
History
The site was originally known as Manor Farm and it was one of three farms around which the settlement of Strete developed. The surviving historic fabric indicates the south range dates to the C17, with possible earlier origins. The original building appears to have been a cross-passage house with three or four rooms which has been subject to various phases of extensions, including the addition of a stair tower to the south at a later date. A kitchen range and store loft was added to the north-east, and an implement store and agricultural wing added to the north-west end, around the late C18/ early C19. Manor Farm appears on an 1816 map, with a parallel range to the rear and a rear cross wing. The footprint is similar on the 1840 Tithe map. During the Second World War all of Strete was evacuated due to nearby live ammunition manoeuvres being carried out by the Allied forces on the E Devon coast. After the end of the war the farm was sold. In the mid-C20 an outbuilding to the south was used as an abattoir. The attached north range and wing were subdivided into separate dwellings. The former C17 cross passage house was renamed The Longhouse.
Details
A C17 former cross-passage house, with possible earlier origins, refurbished in the late C20.
MATERIALS: a rubble-stone building with a rendered front, covered with asbestos-tile roofs. The windows are timber frames.
PLAN: a single-depth three/four-room, former cross-passage plan (some of the internal walls have been removed and replaced in the C20).
EXTERIOR: a two-storey building topped by a pitched roof with a hipped end to the east and gabled to the west. There is an off-centre brick stack over the roof ridge, and lateral stacks at either end. The principal (south) elevation is asymmetrical and has five bays. The main entrance is to the right-of-centre, with a C19 studded plank door with wrought-iron hinges within a C20 pitch-roof porch. Most of the windows are late C19, including two, three and five-light casements on both floors, and a 15-pane ground-floor window. The right-hand bay projects forward of the main elevation. The west elevation faces onto the road and incorporates a mounting block, blocked ground-floor and first-floor openings and a glazed first-floor arrow-slit. The north-east short wing contains a door and first-floor three-light window.
INTERIOR: the current main entrance hall marks the former cross passage and the blocked rear doorway is discernible in the north wall. To the west of the hall is a rubble-stone internal wall with a pointed-arched opening. There are chamfered-and-stopped ceiling beams in the principal ground-floor rooms, and several internal timber plank doors with strap hinges, of various dates. In the centre of the house, facing into the east-end room, is a large fireplace with a timber bressumer and two cloam (bread) ovens. To the rear of the fireplace is a separate smoke chamber with a conical roof, and two pointed-arched doors, one leading through to the passage and the other (blocked) in the north wall. There are further later fireplaces at either end of the building. There are two timber dogleg staircases, one in the centre of the building, the other in the east-end room. The first floor contains a stone fireplace at the east end decorated with C17 monochrome patterned sgraffito plaster, and an around C17 stud-and-plank screen in the west-end room. This range is topped by a late C17/ early C18 collared timber-pegged roof. The whole building was refurbished in the late C20 and some of the partitions and joinery dates to this phase.
