Description

SX 68 NE CHAGFORD

3/93 Yeo Farmhouse 23.12.86 GV II

Farmhouse, perhaps former Dartmoor longhouse. Probably C16 or C17 origins but original house appears to have been rebuilt on the old plan in 1842, according to date plaque. By family tradition it was rebuilt after a fire. At the time however outshots were built along the rear. Plastered granite; granite stacks with plastered brick and granite ashlar chimney shafts; slate roof. Plan and development: 11-room-and-through-passage plan house facing east-south-east, say east, and built down a slight slope. The inner room is at the left (southern) end and has an end stack with a winder stair alongside. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the wide passage with present main stair to rear. The service end or former shippon contains a kitchen with a rear lateral stack and there is a store at the right (northern) end. According to family tradition this was a shippon before 1842. Outshots right across the back. Behind the inner room is the dairy, the former cider store behind the hall is now converted to a bathroom, pump house to rear of the passage, and behind the service end a coach house (now garage) with pigsties behind. House is 2 storeys. Exterior: Regular 4-window front of mostly C19 casements with glazing bars. A fifth window on the right end would make it symmetrical. The front passage doorway is roughly central and now contains a C20 door and gabled slate-roofed hood. Directly above this is a datestone commemorating the 1842 rebuild. A doorway to the inner room at the left end now contains a C20 French window and there is a plank door at the right end to the store there. This roof is gable-ended and carried down to rear over the outshots. The coach house/garage outshot also includes a row of 3 pigsties facing backwards. Each has a low doorway with a feeding hatch alongside containing a granite trough. Interior has been little altered since the C19. Nowhere do earlier features show. The fireplaces have C19 grates except for the large but plain granite kitchen fireplace. No structural carpentry is exposed and all the joinery is C19. The roof was not inspected but is reported to have a C20 replacement structure. There are some interesting and rare features. The dairy outshot for instance is terraced into the slope. Around the outer 2 sides is a granite ledge with a shallow channel in its top. Water can be fed by an iron pipe from the nearby stream into the channel and this was used to cool the cream pans. There is a drain and granite trough at the end and there is still the original (and now uneven) brick floor. In the pump house spring water is still drawn from a C19 pump and there are 2 large granite troughs. Although the house was connected to mains electricity in 1986 the nearby mill (q.v.) had provided hydro-electricity since 1893. By the front door there is still a wheel for starting the dynamo (connected to the mill by an underground chain) and there is the original voltmeter in the wall. Although Yeo Farmhouse is essentially C19 it is a remarkably complete farmhouse with nearly all its C19 fittings. The Perryman family have lived on the site since circa 1450. It is also important to regard this farmhouse along with the well-preserved group of listed buildings associated with it such as the office and garden railings (q.v.), mill (q.v.), smithy (q.v.), and the Old School House (q.v.).

Listing NGR: SX6786786562

External Links

• Wikidata Q26400056

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Recommended Books

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  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
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  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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