Description

SS 70 SE CREDITON HAMLETS

2/89 Spence Combe Farmhouse including
26.8.65 2 adjoining cob garden walls to
south

II

Farmhouse. Mid-C16, modernised and extended in late C17 and again circa 1880.
Plastered cob and rubble; volcanic stone and brick stacks; wheat reed thatched
roof. L-shaped building with main block facing south with much altered 3-room-and-
through-passage plan with inner room at left (west) end, a C17 rear block at right
angles behind inner room. Gable end stacks to main block and axial hall stack
backing onto former passage, and inner lateral stack to rear block. Circa 1880
passage removed by construction of new fireplace to service room backing onto hall
stack and at same time new entrance hall provided in upper end of hall with 2
storey gabled porch to rear. 2 storeys throughout. 6-window front with doorway of
circa 1880 left of centre. Top of door is glazed with margin panes and 2 panels
below; with glazing bars, panelled reveals, overlight doorcase with incised
pilasters and moulded entablature. Adjacent to right is contemporary canted bay
window with large pane sashes with margin panes. Other ground floor windows are
12-pane sashes but that to right of bay window is blind with painted glazing (near
site of putative, original through passage door). All 6 first floor windows are
late C17 timber mullion-and-upper-transom windows with flat faces and glazing
rebates and internal shallow ogee mouldings. All have leaded rectangular panes,
most have 2 iron stanchions per fixed light, and some have original iron casements
with 4 horizontal bars and catches. The stack projecting from left (west) end has
exposed volcanic ashlar stack and chimney shaft, and behind, the rear block has
another late C17 mullion-and-transom window with leaded panes and ferramenta at
first floor level. Another 2 similar late C17 windows to left of rear elevation
are half-dormers with gabled roofs containing C19 shaped bargeboards. The C19 rear
porch has panelled door with rectangular fanlight and gable has wavy openwork
bargeboards and pendant. Roof of rear wing is hipped. Inside, the former hall
(including present entrance hall) has high quality, mid C16, 12-panel, intersecting
beam ceiling. The oak beams are richly moulded and each panel contains 4 plain
joists at right angles to those in neightbouring panels. Contemporary oak floor
boards show. Elsewhere most of interior refurbished circa 1880 but a section of a
C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen is reset in the rear block; it apparently derived
from first floor front. 6-bay roof of main block is original but can only be
examined in roofspace where the well-finished carpentry is similar in style from
end to end. Only a couple of side pegged jointed crucks can be seen below. The
first floor was mostly ceiled at collar level from beginning. Late C17 3-bay roof
to rear block comprising plain A-frames with pegged lap-jointed collars. The rear
block formerly extended further northwards.
From each end of frontage long plastered cob walls on rubble footings with pitched
thatched roofs extend southwards on either side of garden. The left (west) wall
includes a small gazebo against the house, 2 bee boles and a series of cob
buttresses on the unplastered rear side.
Associated with Spencer family who are first recorded here in 1333 (Place Names of
Devon).

Listing NGR: SS7935401653

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26463698

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014