Cow house, calf house and walled yard, 15m south-west of Selworthy Farmhouse

Summary

Cow house, later adapted to include stables; C18 date with some late-C19 alterations. Attached is a calf house of the late C19/early C20.

Reasons for Designation

The former cow house and attached calf house, 15m south-west of Selworthy Farmhouse is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* the cow house retains most of its original fabric and roof structure and is a good example of the local vernacular. The later calf house adds to the special interest.

Historic interest:
* as an integral part of an historic farmstead and for its contribution to our understanding of regional farming practices.

Group value:
* as an integral part of the historic farmstead.

History

Selworthy Farm is situated at the lower (south-west) end of Selworthy, a narrow linear village that is recorded as Seleuurde in the Domesday Book. The farm dates from at least the C16. In 1802 the estate of Selworthy was inherited by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (1787-1871), the tenth Baronet and Member of Parliament, and became part of the Holnicote Estate, the Exmoor seat of the Acland family. The family owned extensive lands in Somerset and Devon and had a great influence on its estates and its people. Both Sir Thomas and his son, also Thomas (1809-1898) and who became the 11th Baronet in 1871, undertook building projects and improvements across their landholdings. The 11th Baronet was a philanthropist who aimed to modernise his estates and improve the living conditions of agricultural labourers.

Selworthy Farm is depicted on the Holnicote Estate Map of 1809-1812, although the agricultural buildings are not clearly discernible. They are shown as an inverted S-shaped arrangement of attached buildings, including a cow house, to the south-west of the C16 farmhouse on the Tithe map for Selworthy of 1840. The current layout of the farmstead dates principally from the late C19. Sometime between 1876 (Holnicote Estate map) and 1889 (first edition Ordnance Survey map) it was substantially remodelled; new buildings were added, some of the existing ones were repaired and/or adapted, and at least one was demolished. The cow house depicted on the tithe map was retained but underwent some alterations, including the addition of stalls for horses in the south half of the building. In 1883-1884 a new farmhouse was also constructed, although the original, C16 dwelling was retained for ancillary purposes. The 1889 Ordnance Survey map depicts the farm as a group of attached agricultural buildings enclosing a courtyard to the south-west of the farmhouse. There are also two detached buildings, including cow house, further to the south of the Victorian house, and a pigsty to the north-west. The layout of the farmstead remains relatively constant after 1889 except for small additions to some of the buildings. This includes the small calf house which was built against the west side of the cow house in the late C19/early C20.

The Holnicote Estate remained in the hands of the Acland family until 1944 when it was gifted by the 15th Baronet Sir Richard Dyke Acland to the National Trust. Selworthy Farm was tenanted until the early C21 and the late-C19 farmhouse was renovated in 2020.

Details

Cow house, later adapted to include stables; C18 date with some late-C19 alterations. Attached is a calf house of the late C19/early C20.

MATERIALS
It is constructed of random sandstone rubble, with some cob, under a pitched, probably formerly hipped, double roman tiled roof which overhangs the gable ends. The calf house is also built of sandstone rubble and some brick, with a monopitched roof of double roman tiles.

PLAN
A rectangular building of four bays with a later calf pen structure built against the west gable wall. The building is formed of three elements: cow house and stables to the ground floor and a hayloft over the cow house. The calf house is built against the west gabled end of the cow house and extends northwards slightly.

EXTERIOR
It is a one-and-a-half storey building with two doorways set within altered openings to the entrance front (south). There is a wide, ledge and braced plank door to the right and a full-height opening to the left of centre which has a pair of timber plank doors with inserted lights and boarded infill above the doors. To the left end is a two-light window in a splayed opening and there is a small fixed light below the eaves. The east gable wall has a timber window with wooden ventilation slats to the lower half and there are two infilled openings in the north side. The calf house attached to the west has a small, boarded opening set high in the south elevation, and its west elevation comprises wooden vertical planks and two ledged and braced doors. There are no openings in the north wall.

INTERIOR
The ground floor is bisected by a stone partition wall which extends up above the wall plate as a boarded wooden screen that contains a plank door. The right-hand half is open to the roof, has a diamond-patterned brick floor and wooden stall divisions. The other half has cement render to the lower part of the walls, a cement floor and is devoid of fittings. The axial beams and joists of the first floor are roughly-shaped and support wide floorboards. The roof has pegged collared principal trusses and there are single rows of purlins which, except for the original north purlin in the east half of the building, are later replacements; the ridge piece is also of later date. The calf house is divided into two pens by a timber partition and each pen has a wooden hayrack.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES
Adjacent to the calf house is a small yard with a cobbled floor surface. It is bounded to the north and south by stone rubble walls with cock and hen capping; each contains a narrow gateway.

Sources

Websites
Selworthy Farm, C19 Farmhouse and Farm Buildings, Holnicote Estate, accessed 2 September 2020 from https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA139641

Other
I Richardson, 2001, The National Trust, Holnicote Estate, Archaeological Survey Parts 1-3

End of official list entry

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