Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/48 Lower Puddicombe Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Early or mid C16 with major later C16 or C17 improvements, later
superficial modernisations. Plastered walls, probably cob on stone rubble footings;
stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick, the hall one still with its
granite ashlar chimneyshaft; corrugated asbestos roof, formerly thatch.
Plan and development: 4-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-east and
built across the slope. At the right (north-eastern) end is the unheated inner room
(a former dairy) with an secondary through passage on the outside end. The hall has
a large axial stack backing onto the main through passage. There are 2 rooms in the
service end. The inner service end room has a projecting rear lateral stack and the
left end room has an end stack. Although the roofspace was not available for
inspection at the time of this survey the owner claims it is smoke-blackened. If
so, as seems likely, the original house was open to the roof from end to end,
divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was
probably inserted in the late C16 and the house was progressively floored from the
mid C16 - mid C17. Now a C20 stair in hall but alcove shows that original newel
stair was on front to lower end of hall. The service end was probably converted to
a kitchen in the early or mid C17 and the end stack possibly dates from them.
However it was divided into 2 rooms probably in the C19. 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular 3-window of mostly late C19 and C20 casements but the oldest,
first floor centre, is a late C18 - early C19 casement containing rectangular panes
of leaded glass. Late c19 - early C20 door to main passage front doorway and lean
to outshot in front of the hall. The roof is gable-ended and steps up from left to
right at the hall stack. Similar fenestration to rear.
Interior: in the hall the fireplace is blocked by a C20 grate but one hollow-
chamfered jamb of a large granite ashlar fireplace shows. Passage chamber jetties
into the hall flush with the front of the stack and there is evidence of upper end
jetty as the inner room chamber oversails the stone rubble crosswall that end. This
crosswall includes a probably late C16 - early C17 oak doorframe with chamfered
surround (the stops have worn off). Hall floored in mid C17 by a crossbeam and half
beams, all soffit chamfered-with bar runout stops. No carpentry detail shows in the
inner room or the first service end room off the through passage. The outer service
end room, probably the former kitchen has a massive soffit-chamfered axial beam. The
fireplace here is plastered over but the owner reports finding a large side oven.
On the first floor there is an oak segmental-headed door frame from the passage
chamber to the hall chamber, and, from the hall chamber to the inner room chamber
another oak doorframe with chamfered surround and scroll stops, this latter one
containing an oak plank door hung on strap hinges with fleur-de-lys finials. 2 of
the possible 4 roof trusses show; they are side-pegged jointed crucks. The others
are boxed into partitions. The roofspace wasnot available for inspection but the
owner claims they are smoke-blackened and therefore probably early or mid C16 in
date.
This is a good multi-phase Devon farmhouse and much of its C16 and C17 structural
detail is probably hidden behind later plaster.

Listing NGR: SX7256491918

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611576

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover