Home Farmhouse (Vicarage Farmhouse on OS) Including Front Garden Revettment Walls Adjoining to South East Home Farmhouse Including Front Garden Revettment Walls Adjoining to South East

Details

HOCKWORTHY HOCKWORTHY ST 01 NW 4/82 Home Farmhouse (Vicarage Farmhouse - on O.S) including front garden revettment walls adjoining to south-east GV II* Farmhouse, maybe a medieval church house. Late C14 - early C15 with major C16 and C17 improvements, modernised in mid C19. Main block is plastered stone rubble probably with cob, the crosswing is exposed stone rubble; stone rubble stacks with plastered C19 brick chimneyshafts; slate roofs, formerly thatch. Plan and development: an irregular L-shaped building. The main block faces south- east. It has a 2-room plan with central through passage with the main stair rising alongside. The right room has a secondary winder stair rising in a turret projecting to rear. Each room has a gable-end stack, the left one projecting and the right one backing onto a small dairy block, lower than the main block and set back from the front. It connects to a 2-room plan crosswing projecting forward. The rear room of this wing was a kitchen/bakehouse with a rear gable-end stack. The front room was some kind of (maybe agricultural) store but has now been brought into domestic use. This is a house with a long and complex structural history and some of the evidence of its development has been demolished or is hidden behind later plaster. The main block is the historic core of the house. Originally this was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. It is certain that this house originally extended further left and probably had a 3-room- and-through-passage plan. Thus it seems that it was the inner room which was demolished and therefore the left room was the medieval hall and the right room the service end room, the other side of the through passage. Through the C16 and C17 the fireplaces were inserted and the house progressively floored over but the precise sequence is unclear. The present layout appears to result largely from and early C17 renovation and late C17 modernisation. In the first phase, the inner room end was demolished, the hall converted to a parlour and service end room a dining room with the rear winder stair. The dairy block dates from this time. The crosswing including the kitchen was added or rebuilt in the late C17 and at the same time the main stair was inserted into the hall/parlour alongside the passage. House is 2 storeys throughout. Exterior: the main block has a nearly symmetrical 3-window front of late C19 - early C20 casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is right of centre upsetting the symmetry. It contains a pair of late C17 fielded panel doors behind a C20 gabled porch. Along the eaves is a mid C19 cast iron gutter with lions head joints. The roof is gable-ended. The dairy block is to right and the front roof is carried down over a C19 or C20 outshot. The crosswing contains C19 and C20 casements, the latest without glazing bars. On the outer side, near the front end, a flight of external stone steps lead to the first floor, and, towards the rear, a doorway into the kitchen is behind a C20 conservatory. This block is also gable- ended and the front gable includes a series of pigeon holes. Good Interior: the left room of the main block, the former hall, has late C16 - early C17 features. The 2 crossbeams have broad unstopped soffit-chamfers although the half beam across the chimneybreast includes pyramid stops. The stone rubble fireplace here is missing its original lintel. At the head of the late C17 stair there are turned oak balusters and a moulded handrail. Between the stairs and passage a short section of the headbeam of a late C16 - early C17 oak plank-and- muntin screen shows. In the right room the fireplace is blocked and the crossbeam is plastered over. The dairy crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with run-out double nick stops. The kitchen (in the crosswing) has a roughly-finished crossbeam. The fireplace is blocked but part of its chamfered oak lintel shows. The "wash house" to left may originally have been a walk-in curing chamber. The front room shows no original carpentry. The first floor of this wing is one long room and its plastered walls suggest that it was service accommodation. Its roof is carried on collarless straight principal trusses. The most important feature of the house is the medieval roof over most of the main block. 2 bays survive. The lower parts of the 3 trusses are plastered over but true or jointed crucks are suspected. The timbers are of large scantling. They have cambered collars and saddles carrying a square-set ridge (Alcock's apex type C). There are false king posts rising from the collar to the saddle. The outer 2 trusses have archbraces set into these posts supporting the ridge. Each bay contains single sets of curving windbraces. This roof structure is thoroughly smoke-blackened from the medieval open hearth fire. The roof originally continued further in both directions. The garden in front of the main house and dairy is enclosed by a C19 low stone rubble wall which descends to revet the garden terrace above the farmyard. There are stone steps up from the farmyard to a central gateway. The medieval roof here is very important. Its style of construction puts it amongst the earliest domestic roofs in Devon. The false king posts arch-braced to the ridge seem to be a kind of devolved crown post construction. There is a group of similar roofs west of Exeter including Clifford Barton, Tedburn St. Mary; The Old Rectory, Cheriton Bishop and The Old Rectory, Lustleigh.

Listing NGR: ST0384119445

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

95932

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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