Woolladon Farmhouse

Details

MEETH SS 50 NW Woolladon Farmhouse 3/178 - II* GV Farmhouse. 1666. Plastered cob walls. Gable ended thatch roof. 2 brick gable end stacks; rubble axial stack with dripcourse and brick shaft. Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan, lower end to the right, with probably integral rear outshut and stairs, 2 storey porch and adjoining outshut in front of lower end of hall. Lower and inner rooms heated by gable end fireplaces, hall has stack backing onto passage. Small outshut at front of hall is likely also to be C17 and may have been a dairy or buttery. The rear outshut incorporates 2 small rooms, one behind the hall and one behind the inner room, which have since been blocked off and have no access. The stairs are in 2 parts - both reached from the hall but one flight rises behind hall to reach chambers over lower end and passage. The other flight rises behind the inner room and gives access to the chambers over the hall and inner room and also 2 small rooms on the first floor of the outshut. There are no post C17 additions and this remarkably interesting plan survives unaltered. Exterior: 2 storeys, 3 storeys to porch. Asymmetrical 5-window front with storeyed porch to right of centre. The first floor retains its original 4-light chamfered wooden mullion windows with true mitres apart from the first floor porch window which has moulded mullions. Above it on 2nd floor is a 2-light chamfered wooden mullion window. On ground floor to right of porch is C20 3-light wooden casement with similar window to left on ground floor. Hall window to left of centre is original 4-light ovolo-moulded wooden mullion. To left of porch is outshut with 3-light wooden mullion window. Gabled porch has heavy square-headed wooden frame with broad chamfer. The porch has a wooden seat in either side. Inner doorway has square-headed double roll- moulded wooden frame with high stops and a contemporary oak studded door divided into 2 panels by moulded stiles. Inside the porch above the outer doorway is the date 1666 in high relief plasterwork with initials next to it. Rear elevation has 2 full height leantos the one to left of centre is shallower. The right-hand leanto has an original chamfered 3-light wood mullion window to right on ground floor and a similar blocked window to the left. Between them is a C20 window lighting the stairs. Similar mullion window on right end wall of leanto. Left-hand leanto has a blocked 3-light window mullion in the angle with the leanto projecting to its right. Passage rear doorway towards left-hand end. Projecting from either end of the house rear wall is a cob wall forming an enclosed courtyard the fourth side of which is completed by the outbuilding to rear of the house (q.v.). Interior: the original fireplace openings have been blocked or concealed and no ceiling beams are exposed - it is possible that by this later C17 date the house was built with plastered ceilings. However, numerous C17 wooden chamfered doorframes survive - from the passage to the hall, into the inner room and front outshut and from the hall to the stairs. At the head of each stair is a double chamfered doorframe and there are 2 more to either side at the head of the left-hand staircase. The right- nand staircase is a straight flight constructed of solid oak treads. The roof space was only partially accessible and the timbers seen were not smoke blackened. The trusses are straight principals but further constructional features were not visible - it is likely, however, that the C17 roof still survives. This iaa particularly important house, being dated, because single phase later cli houses are unusual in Devon. Furthermore it has been very little altered since the C17, both internally and externally and preserves an interesting variation on the 3- room-and-through-passage plan. It forms part of an unaltered farm complex.

Listing NGR: SS5267107589

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

93293

Legacy System:

LBS

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