Description

SX 79 NE CREDITON HAMLETS

6/79 Keymelford farmhouse and
26.8.65 adjoining cowshed to east

II*

Farmhouse and adjoining cowshed to east. Early C16 with later C16 and C17
improvements and extensions, further C19 extensions and refurbishing. Plastered
cob on rubble footings; cob, stone and brick stacks topped with C20 brick; wheat
reed thatch roof. Now L-shaped building with long main block facing south with
small gable-ended front block at left (west) end. The original, though altered, 3-
room-and-through passage house takes up the left two thirds of main block with
service room at west end. Late C17 extension to right of inner room and a C19
cowshed with accommodation and granary above in lower section at right (east) end.
C19 block to front of service room. End stacks to front wing, service room and
late C17 extension and former front lateral stack to hall is disused, replaced by
C20 axial stack at upper end of hall. Now 2-storeys throughout. Overall 6-window
front of C19 3-light wooden casements with much contemporary glazing. Front
passage door at left end has late C19 flat-roofed timber porch with trellis sides,
pointed vallance and shaped arch with small pierced quatrefoils. Cowshed extension
has 2 doors, left to store with chamber over, right to stalls, and, against left
end wall, external stone steps to granary, both with unglazed windows. Roof hipped
this end. Some good features exposed inside but most hidden in C19. Passage has
been widened at expense of hall which caused partial blocking of C17 hall fireplace
and insertion of new fireplace at upper end. Plain chamfered crossbeam suggests
hall remained open well into C17. Lower part of hall roof truss is boxed into
first floor partition but in roofspace apex of heavy scanthing is exposed. The
truss, common rafters and thatch, are heavily sooted from original open hearth fire
and there is evidence of a louvre arrangement on lower side of truss. There is a
contemporary i.e. early C16 oak window frame exposed externally in north wall.
Never glazed, it is 4-lights with chamfered mullions and pointed heads cut into the
headbeam - it is very rare for open hall windows to survive in situ. There are
full height cob crosswalls at upper end of hall and lowe side of passage.
Roofspace is inaccessible over lower end and ground floor cross beam has late C16-
early C17 deeply chamfered beam with late step stops. Roof space over inner room
is not convincingly smoke-blackened and ground floor has C16 axial beam with step
stops, and first floor former gable end contains small oak 4-light diamond-mullion
window. Late C17 3-bay extension beyond with axial beam with straight cut stops
over ground floor. Cob stack to front wing may indicate an earlier date than
consistent C19 internal features suggest.
Good unmodernised late medieval farmhouse.

Listing NGR: SX7787299708

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547959

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990