Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 29/06/2016

SW 63 SW
4/107

CROWAN
Drym Farm, adjoining outbuilding, rear garden walls, well and mounting block

(Formerly listed as Drym House, adjoining outbuilding, rear garden walls, well and mounting block)

GV
II
House, adjoining outbuilding, rear garden walls, well and mounting block. Early C19, but a C17 chamfered granite fragment is incorporated in the outbuilding. Granite ashlar with some killas headers; sides and rear have ashlar used as bonding headers and around the openings with killas between. Grouted scantle slate roof with brick chimneys over the original gable ends but extended with hipped end over apple loft on right. Cast iron ogee gutters with lion's head joints.

Double depth plan: originally a 2 rooms wide house, with parlour, left, and kitchen/living room, right, and cross passage between leading to central stair hall at rear; back kitchen/dairy with back door behind right hand room and possibly pantry behind the left hand room. Extended slightly later in the C19 with a full depth apple loft on the right hand side, the ground floor of this linked by doorway cut in the house and then used as the kitchen, and the apple loft approached by a 1st floor doorway in the end wall. Also extended at the left hand side of the rear by an irregular range of stone-walled slate-roofed outbuildings comprising probably a forge, stabling and houses for other animals and storage. 2 storeys. Overall 4 window south front: nearly symmetrical 3 window front of original house with nearly central doorway and 1 window front of apple loft on the right. 4-panel door within C20 conservatory. Original 16-pane hornless sashes to 1st floor of house, 16-pane horned copy to 1st floor of apple loft. Later 4-pane horned sashes to the ground floor openings. The rear is more complete than the front with all its original 16-pane hornless sashes and tall mid-floor round-headed stair sash with fanlight head. Original back doorway blocked, present doorway into apple loft extension with blind window over. C20 conservatory/porch in front. The ground floor of the apple loft is lit by 2 windows with 16-pane sashes in the end wall and there is a loading doorway with original ledged door with shaped iron strap hinges to 1st floor left. It is possible that the apple loft was originally unlit or that the window openings had louvres behind shutters. Below the doorway are iron treads projecting from the wall, to prevent rats from penetrating the apple loft.

Interior: original dog leg stair with closed string, stick balusters and square caps over square newels; arch, between passage and stair hall, over pulvinated jambs; some panelled doors, original floors, most partitions and roof structure.

Rear garden wall is rubble with dressed granite elliptically-headed coping; round headed granite monolith gate piers near the rear right hand rounded corner with granite steps and just to one side of the gateway (outside right) is a 3-step mounting block cut out of 1 piece of granite. The well at the opposite corner has stone surround and a cast-iron pump.

Drym was a manor in 1128 and this house may be on the manor house site (information from Mr and Mrs Best, occupiers). Drym Farm is of high quality unusually bonded masonry unmarred by later pointing, this, together with the original roofing and many original windows make a very striking impression, and the rear, overlooking a cobbled farmyard, is even better than the front.

Listing NGR: SW6209533652

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26435012

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)