Description

HOCKWORTHY HOCKWORTHY
ST 01 NW
4/82 Home Farmhouse (Vicarage Farmhouse
- on O.S) including front garden
revettment walls adjoining to
south-east
GV II*
Farmhouse, maybe a medieval church house. Late C14 - early C15 with major C16 and
C17 improvements, modernised in mid C19. Main block is plastered stone rubble
probably with cob, the crosswing is exposed stone rubble; stone rubble stacks with
plastered C19 brick chimneyshafts; slate roofs, formerly thatch.
Plan and development: an irregular L-shaped building. The main block faces south-
east. It has a 2-room plan with central through passage with the main stair rising
alongside. The right room has a secondary winder stair rising in a turret
projecting to rear. Each room has a gable-end stack, the left one projecting and
the right one backing onto a small dairy block, lower than the main block and set
back from the front. It connects to a 2-room plan crosswing projecting forward.
The rear room of this wing was a kitchen/bakehouse with a rear gable-end stack. The
front room was some kind of (maybe agricultural) store but has now been brought into
domestic use.
This is a house with a long and complex structural history and some of the evidence
of its development has been demolished or is hidden behind later plaster. The main
block is the historic core of the house. Originally this was open to the roof from
end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. It is
certain that this house originally extended further left and probably had a 3-room-
and-through-passage plan. Thus it seems that it was the inner room which was
demolished and therefore the left room was the medieval hall and the right room the
service end room, the other side of the through passage. Through the C16 and C17
the fireplaces were inserted and the house progressively floored over but the
precise sequence is unclear. The present layout appears to result largely from and
early C17 renovation and late C17 modernisation. In the first phase, the inner room
end was demolished, the hall converted to a parlour and service end room a dining
room with the rear winder stair. The dairy block dates from this time. The
crosswing including the kitchen was added or rebuilt in the late C17 and at the same
time the main stair was inserted into the hall/parlour alongside the passage. House
is 2 storeys throughout.
Exterior: the main block has a nearly symmetrical 3-window front of late C19 -
early C20 casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is right of centre
upsetting the symmetry. It contains a pair of late C17 fielded panel doors behind a
C20 gabled porch. Along the eaves is a mid C19 cast iron gutter with lions head
joints. The roof is gable-ended. The dairy block is to right and the front roof is
carried down over a C19 or C20 outshot. The crosswing contains C19 and C20
casements, the latest without glazing bars. On the outer side, near the front end,
a flight of external stone steps lead to the first floor, and, towards the rear, a
doorway into the kitchen is behind a C20 conservatory. This block is also gable-
ended and the front gable includes a series of pigeon holes.
Good Interior: the left room of the main block, the former hall, has late C16 -
early C17 features. The 2 crossbeams have broad unstopped soffit-chamfers although
the half beam across the chimneybreast includes pyramid stops. The stone rubble
fireplace here is missing its original lintel. At the head of the late C17 stair
there are turned oak balusters and a moulded handrail. Between the stairs and
passage a short section of the headbeam of a late C16 - early C17 oak plank-and-
muntin screen shows. In the right room the fireplace is blocked and the crossbeam
is plastered over. The dairy crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with run-out double nick
stops. The kitchen (in the crosswing) has a roughly-finished crossbeam. The
fireplace is blocked but part of its chamfered oak lintel shows. The "wash house"
to left may originally have been a walk-in curing chamber. The front room shows no
original carpentry. The first floor of this wing is one long room and its plastered
walls suggest that it was service accommodation. Its roof is carried on collarless
straight principal trusses.
The most important feature of the house is the medieval roof over most of the main
block. 2 bays survive. The lower parts of the 3 trusses are plastered over but
true or jointed crucks are suspected. The timbers are of large scantling. They
have cambered collars and saddles carrying a square-set ridge (Alcock's apex type
C). There are false king posts rising from the collar to the saddle. The outer 2
trusses have archbraces set into these posts supporting the ridge. Each bay
contains single sets of curving windbraces. This roof structure is thoroughly
smoke-blackened from the medieval open hearth fire. The roof originally continued
further in both directions.
The garden in front of the main house and dairy is enclosed by a C19 low stone
rubble wall which descends to revet the garden terrace above the farmyard. There
are stone steps up from the farmyard to a central gateway.
The medieval roof here is very important. Its style of construction puts it amongst
the earliest domestic roofs in Devon. The false king posts arch-braced to the ridge
seem to be a kind of devolved crown post construction. There is a group of similar
roofs west of Exeter including Clifford Barton, Tedburn St. Mary; The Old Rectory,
Cheriton Bishop and The Old Rectory, Lustleigh.

Listing NGR: ST0384119445

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17531393

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

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings