Lower Chilverton

Details

COLDRIDGE SS 60 NE 1/9 Lower Chilverton 14.12.84 GV II*

Farmhouse. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements and C17 extension. Plastered walls, mostly random stone rubble but some cob near the top; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof. Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south with inner room at left (west) end. Front door now to entrance lobby and service room has been extended into rear section of passage. Inner and service end rooms have end stacks and hall has projecting front lateral stack. C17 unheated dairy block with main stairs projecting at right angles to rear of hall. Secondary stairs to left of service end stack. Now 2 storeys throughout. Irregular 4-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. The roof is gable- ended. The hall stack has its original rubble chimney shaft now extended with C20 brick. On left (east) end is a small outshot with corrugated iron lean-to roof. The rear dairy block has hipped roof and includes a C19 casement to the stairs set in a C17 oak frame with chamfered reveals and missing its original 2 mullions. Good Interior of a house with a long and complex structural history. The original house was open from ground floor to the roof and divided only by low partitions. One of the original low partitions survives in situ at the lower end of the hall and the headbeam of a second survives on the lower side of the former passage. Both were oak plank-and-muntin screens. The hall-passsage screen sits on a high inserted plinth which cut away the bottom of the screen above the stops of the chamfered muntins. Towards the front of the house the present doorway is cut through the screen. The original shoulder-headed doorway is blocked although it st;ill contains an ancient old plank door. The upper hall screen has also been cut away at the bottom but here the chamfered muntins have roll stops high enough to accommodate a bench. This screen is probably mid-late C16 and forms the lower part of a full height large-framed partition. The original roof is apparently intact from end to end. It is 5 bays, 1 over inner room, 2 to hall and 2 to service end. The middle hall and service and trusses are side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cranked collars. The hall truss has chamfered arch bracing. The trusses carry 3 sets of butt purlins with chamfered edges and pyramid stops. The 2 hall bays had 2 sets of windbraces but now only the upper tier survives. The roof timbers and underside of rye thatch are smoke-blackened throughout from open hearth fires. There is however a problem of interpretation here since the trusses at each end of the hall appear not to be jointed crucks and have straight collars as if built for full height crosswalls. Nevertheless it appears that both framed crosswalls were not built until the mid-late C16. The hall's open hearth fire sooted the faces of the apparently new crosswalls. The infil of the upper end crosswall is clean on the inner room side. It seems likely that this end was floored at this time but the structure has been replaced leaving a series of redundant joist mortises in the head of the plank-and-muntin screen. It was replaced by a new floor at a higher level carried on a half-beam which is soffit-chamfered with unusual step stops, probably first half of C17. The fireplace here is a C20 brick replacement. The service end side infil of the lower hall crosswall is also sooted indicating that there was no first floor and a second open hearth in the service end room in the late C16. The hall fireplace is late C16-early C17, built of blocks of local stone with a plain soffit-chamfered oak lintel and includes a small ingle light to right and the blocked doorway of a secondary oven to left. The hall has a fine high ceiling of 3 bays introduced in the mid C17; it is 3 bays and the crossbeams are richly moulded with bar runout stops and have narrow recessed strips along the soffits. The joists are ovolo-moulded with step stops. The service end room has a C17 fireplace of local stone with a high oak lintel with soffit chamfer and worn, possibly scroll, stops and includes an inserted or relined late C19 oven with cast-iron door. The crossbeam is probably late C17. It is soffit-chamfered with runout stops and was supported each end by posts with jowled heads but now only the rear post survives. The pegs fixing the joists to the top of the beam are so long that they show on the inner soffit chamfer. The oak winder stair alongside the fireplace is probably late C17. On the first floor the passage chamber has a blocked early C16 window in the rear wall. It is small in size and made from a single piece of oak and has a trefoil arched head. The door from the passage to service chamber is probably late C17; it is made of oak planks with moulded cover-strips and is hung on plain strap hinges. The rear block has C20 stairs replacing the originals. At the stairhead a mid C17 oak doorframe to the hall chamber has an ovolo-moulded surround with urn stops. The roof is C17 comprising 3 bays and tall, steeply-pitched A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. Lower Chilverton is a particularly well-preserved example of a typical, multi-phase late medieval Devon farmhouse, one of the best in the county. Source: C. Hulland. Devonshire Farmhouse, Part V. Trans. Devon Association 112 (1980) pp 159-164 gives a slightly different interpretation of the farmhouse.

Listing NGR: SS6981906181

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

95559

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Transactions of the Devonshire Association in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, Vol. 112, (1980), 159-164

End of official list entry

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