Description

PLYMTREE
ST 00 SE
3/125 Little Clyst William Farmhouse
-
- II*

Farmhouse. Early - mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, some C19
alterations. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, some C19 brick patching; stone
rubble and cob stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof, replaced with
corrugated asbestos to rear.
Plan and development: L-plan house. The main block faces north-north-west, say
north and is built across the hillslope. It has a 4-room-and-through-passage plan.
At the left (east) end is an inner room parlour with a projecting gable-end stack;
it is now used as a kitchen. Next to it is the former hall (now the dining room)
with an axial stack backing onto the passage. The other side of the passage is the
former kitchen with an axial stack backing onto the right (west) end room, an
unheated outhouse. A 1-room plan dairy or buttery block projects at right angles to
rear of the left end.
The 3-room-and-through-passage section of the main block is the historic core of the
house. The roofspace is not wholly accessible but it seems that the original house
was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partition screens and heated by
an open hearth fire. The inner room was floored over very soon-after the house was
built and the chamber jettied into the open hall. The service end was also floored
over at an early stage. In the mid - late C16 the passage was floored over and the
hall chimneystack was inserted. The house was transformed in the early - mid C17,
probably in more than one phase but the evidence is unclear as to the sequence of
events. Both the inner room and the service end were enlarged, given new
chimneystacks, and converted to parlour and kitchen respectively. The hall was
floored over and the dairy/buttery block was added. Some time later an outhouse was
built onto the kitchen end and it was much rebuilt in the C19. Farmhouse is 2
storeys with C20 conservatory to rear of the hall and a secondary lean-to outshot to
rear of the right end.
Exterior: irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars, the
first floor windows have thatch eyebrows over. There are now 3 front doorways. The
central one is the passage front doorway. It contains a late C19 - early C20 4-
panel door behind a C20 slate-roofed porch. To left a doorway has been inserted
into the inner room parlour; it contains a C20 part-glazed door under a contemporary
thatch-roofed porch. To right is a doorway into the outhouse containing a plank
door under a slate-roofed hood. The main roof is gable-ended to left and hipped to
right. The dairy/buttery block roof is hipped.
Interior is good: on the lower (former kitchen) side of the passage part of an oak
plank-and-muntin screen has been exposed. The unusually wide muntins suggest an
early date, maybe it was an original low partition screen. The features of the
kitchen are C17, an axial beam of large scantling is chamfered with runout stops and
the large fireplace is stone rubble with a chamfered oak lintel with scroll-nick
stops. In the hall the fireplace is blocked by a C19 grate with an Adams style
timber chimneypiece. The crossbeam here is moulded with scroll stops. At the upper
end there is evidence of the jettied inner room chamber. Underneath is another
early oak plank-and-muntin screen with wide planks and muntins; maybe it was an
original low partition screen.
Tile muntins are chamfered with diagonal cut stops. The arched head of the doorway
has been slightly altered. The parlour has a moulded axial beam with scroll stops
but the fireplace here is blocked. The dairy/buttery crossbeam is chamfered with
scroll stops. Around the house is a great deal of old joinery detail.
The roof of the main house is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. Those
each end are C17. The kitchen one is inaccessible. The truss over the parlour has
pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collar; there is a similar truss over the rear
block. There is a closed truss over the inner room side of the passage. The roof
timbers over the parlour nearest the jetty crosswall is lightly smoke-blackened
wherease the hall roof, including the hall faces of the 2 crosswalls are heavily
smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire.
This is an attractive and interesting multi-phase Devon farmhouse with well-
preserved late medieval features.

Listing NGR: ST0662202698

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17546751

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record