Description

WIDECOMBE-IN-
SX 67 SE THE-MOOR
5/198 Outbuilding about 20 metres
- south-east of Rowbrook
Farmhouse
- II

Outbuilding, formerly a longhouse. C17 or earlier, with added lean-to. Granite
rubble with massive, roughly-dressed quoins. Slated roof. No chimneys, or evidence
of where one might have been. Plan consists of 2 small domestic rooms to left of a
cross-passage (which has no rear doorway) and a shippon to right. The latter is
separated from the passage by a stone wall with massive stones at its base; the
wall is not bonded to either of the outer walls and never seems to have contained a
doorway. Just next to it in the rear wall, on the shippon side, is a rounded recess
that may have contained a staircase. To the right of this is a blocked doorway,
opposite to the present front doorway into the shippon and it seems quite possible
that the original through-passage was here, absorbed into the shippon at some later
date along with part of the hall. 2 storeys. 2-window front to house part; none
of the windows contain frames or glazing, and all are boarded up. The window left
of the cross-passage door has a chamfered granite lintel with run-out stops, but it
does not fit the opening, even allowing for the right-hand side having been blocked
in. Doorway to left of it, into former inner room, has a similar lintel which fits
rather better. Doorway into cross-passage has an old granite porch roofed with a
sheet of corrugated iron. Shippon doorway, to right, has a plain wood lintel. To
right of this an added lean-to, used latterly as a stable. In the left-hand gable-
wall the house part has a small, hollow-moulded granite window in the ground storey;
it originally had a mullion in the centre, and in each jamb is a hole for a
horizontal bar. In the upper storey is a slit window (now blocked), a remarkable
feature for one of the main walls of a house. At the back the ground appears to
have been built up to second-storey level, probably when the upper part of the
building was converted into a storage loft. The wall contains several old loft
doors, but there is also a slit window, possibly related to a former staircase. In
the right-hand gable-wall the shippon has 3 ventilation slits at ground-storey
level.
Interior has few features. There is a stone wall containing a blocked doorway
between the former inner room and hall. The latter has a chamfered upper-floor beam
with plain joists; the beam has rotted at either end and is supported by inserted
corbels. Below the beam, a very flimsy partition forms the left-hand side of the
cross-passage; the front door must originally have opened straight into the hall.
There is a drain running the full length of the shippon and a line of stones along
the rear wall, defining a feeding trough. The building is known to have been used
as the farmhouse until the late C19, and continued as a dwelling well into C20.
Sources: information from the present owner and Miss E Gawne.

Listing NGR: SX6843172498

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26534882

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2