Description

SX 79 SE DREWSTEIGNTON

6/68 Upperton Farmhouse including
garden walls adjoining to south

II

Farmhouse. C16 with late C16 and C17 improvements, last major modernisation in late
C19. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone stacks with C19 brick tops;
thatch roof
Plan and development: L-shaped building. The long main block faces south and is
built down a gentle slope. It has a 4-room-and-through-passage plan with a small
unheated inner room uphill at the left (west) end. (It is the present kitchen).
The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage and a newel stair turret
projecting to rear towards the upper end. The 2 service end rooms have an axial
stack between. A small unheated 1-room plan dairy projects forward at right angles
in front of the inner room. Only limited internal access was available at the time
of this survey and therefore it is not possible to outline the early development of
the house here. Nevertheless it is obvious that the house began as some type of
open hall house, probably in the early or mid C16 and maybe heated by an open hearth
fire. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the late C16 and the house
progressively floored over. The 2 rooms of the service end were refurbished in the
late C19 as the principal rooms and this end might have been extended. Secondary
outshot to rear of the service end. Main block and dairy are 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular 4-window front of late C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars.
THe passage front doorway is roughly central and now contains a C20 door. The roof
is half-hipped each end. The dairy block roof is lower and hipped.
Interior: only limited internal access was available at the time of this survey.
The hall has a probably late C16 granite ashlar fireplace with a soffit-chamfered
and step-stopped oak lintel. There is evidence of a contemporary chamber over the
passage which jettied into the lower end of the hall flush with the chimneybreast.
At the upper end of the hall an oak plank-and-muntin screen has muntins chamfered
with step stops on both sides. They are high enough to accommodate a bench below on
the hall side. The inner room joists are also soffit-chamfered with step stops.
The hall was floored in the early or mid C17 with an ovolo-moulded crossbeam with
chamfer-step stops. The oak doorframe to the newel stair is-probably contemporary.
It is ovolo-moulded with urn stops and contains an ancient plank door. The service
end rooms are the result of their late C19 refurbishment and no earlier detail shows
here. The roof was not available for inspection and no trusses are said to show.
An early, maybe late medieval, roof is suspected.
A narrow strip of front garden is bounded by a late C19 stone rubble wall.
Upperton Farmhouse is an attractive farmhouse with little C20 modernisation. Many
early features are probably hidden by C19 plaster.

Listing NGR: SX7641390313

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26462636

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 Care and Repair
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas