Description

SX 69 SE DREWSTEIGNTON

4/45 Hobhouse Farmhouse

II*

Farmhouse. Early-mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. Plastered
granite stone rubble, parts are probably cob but others appear to be large coursed
blocks of granite ashlar; granite stacks, the hall one still with its original
granite ashlar chimneyshaft; thatch roof, replaced with shingles at left end.
Plan and development. 4-room plan house facing south and built down a gentle
slope. Service end parlour downhill at the right (east) end with a projecting
gable-end stack. Rear of passage now blocked by small kitchen lobby. The hall has
a large axial stack backing onto the former passage (this stack apparently replacing
a projecting front lateral stack). Unheated inner room was probably a dairy. The
fourth room at the uphill left end is of unknown function. Its gable-end stack
appears to have been inserted (or rebuilt) in the C19. Secondary dairy outshot to
rear of service and parlour. This is an interesting house with a long and complex
structural history. The original early-mid C16 house was an 3-room-and-through-
passage plan house. At this time only the inner room was floored and the chamber
above had a garderobe. The rest of the house was open to the roof, divided by low
partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. In the middle or late C16 a large
fireplace was inserted into the hall in a front lateral stack. In the early or mid
C17 the service end was refurbished as a parlour with chamber over. In the mid C17
the hall was floored and the first fireplace replaced by another in the present
axial stack. The hall was then converted to the kitchen. At about the same time
the fourth room was inserted on the left end.
Exterior. Irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars, the
first floor one at the left end is a C20 dormer. The passage front doorway is right
of centre and contains a C20 plank door behind a contemporary gabled and shingle-
roofed porch. Secondary doorway into the left end room is similar except that this
porch includes 2 reset early-mid C16 oak unglazed windows, a 2-light window with
cinquefoil heads on the right side and a small 2-light window with pointed arch-
headed lights on the front. Main roof is gable-ended. Similar rear fenestration
except that the passage chamber has a C17 oak 3-light window with chamfered oak
mullions.
Interior contains features from all the main building phases. The parlour has an
early or mid C17 plain soffit-chamfered axial beam and a contemporary fireplace in
which the oak lintel has the same finish. In the hall, the fireplace is granite
ashlar with a side oven relined in the late C19 and there are 2 axial crossbeams
(both with plain soffit chamfers) and a series of joists and trimmers at various
angles, so much so that interpretation is beyond the scope of this brief survey. In
the front wall of the hall there is an alcove provided by the first fireplace here;
granite ashlar jambs but missing its lintel. At the upper end a lot of the original
partition has been removed but there is here the remains of an oak plank-and-muntin
screen (the surviving muntins are chamfered but their stops are hidden). The inner
room dairy has a probably original axial beam; soffit-chamfered with runout stops.
The chamber above is original and, from the beginning, had a garderobe alcove across
the outer rear (north-west) corner. This still has an oak 2-centred arch, surely a
remarkable and very rare survival in a house of this status. The upper end
extension has a mid C17 has a soffit-chamfered and.step-stopped crossbeam. The roof
directly above this room is contemporary; a side-pegged jointed cruck, thee cruck
feet exposed close to the ground level. The rest of the roof is original, that is
to say early or mid C16. Over the hall-inner room partition there is an original
closed truss, an A-frame on a tie beam filled with oak large framing. This
partition is clean over the inner room chamber but black on the hall side. The 4-
bay portion over the rest of the roof is smoke-blackened right up to the right
(east) end. It is carried on a series of jointed cruck trusses held together in a
most unusual fashion, by a pair of slip tenons only. Throughout this section the
trusses, purlins, common rafters and underside of the thatch are thoroughly smoke-
blackened.
Hobhouse is a well-preserved late medieval farmhouse. It is special for a house of
this status in that it aspired and built a garderobe. Further than this it is quite
remarkable that it stands less than 400 metres from 2 other important and well-
preserved farmhouses, Nattonhole (q.v.) and Drascombe Barton (q.v.).

Listing NGR: SX6979892105

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537246

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)