Description

ST GILES SS 51 NW IN THE WOOD 7/190 East Dodscott Farmhouse - II

Farmhouse. C16 with major mid and late C17 improvements, modernised in the late C19. Plastered local stone rubble including sections of cob; stone rubble stacks topped with C20 brick; asbestos slate roof, formerly thatch. Plan and development: The main block faces south-south-east, say south. It has a 4- room-and-through-passage plan. At the right (east) end is an unheated dairy with part partitioned off as a pantry. Next is the passage, then the hall with an axial stack backing onto the passage. The hall and parlour are separated by an entrance hall containing the main stair and the parlour at the left (west) end has a gable-end stack. A 1-room plan kitchen block projects at right angles to rear of the lower end overlapping the back of the passage. It has a gable-end stack. Most of the structure is hidden by C19 and C20 plaster but it seems that the present layout is the result of a major late C17 refurbishment of an earlier house. The parlour is a late C17 extension and at the same time the former inner room was converted to the entrance lobby. The roof of the main block was replaced at the same time and therefore there is little exposed evidence of the C16 house. Nevertheless it seems likely that the original house had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan and was probably some kind of open hall house. The kitchen is a mid C17 extension. Farmhouse is 2 storeys. Exterior: Irregular 4-window front of late C19 and C20 casements and the pantry and dairy windows are still unglazed. Passage front doorway is right of centre and contains a C20 part glazed plank door. The entrance lobby doorway is left of centre and it contains a C19 6-panel door behind a C20 porch. The roof is gable-ended. To rear the kitchen doorway has a mid C17 oak doorframe with chamfered surround. Interior shows largely the result of C19 and C20 modernisations although the earlier layout is well-preserved. Little carpentry detail is exposed and all the fireplaces are blocked by C20 grates. The kitchen has 2 chamfered crossbeams with straight cut stops. The main stair is C19 with stick balusters. The parlour includes a couple of good late C17 cupboards, one each side of the fireplace. They are round-headed with fielded panel doors, shaped shelves and coverstrips on the head looking more like a sunburst than the more usual shell head. There are couple of contemporary 2-panel doors on the first floor and a good early-mid C17 door between the hall and passage chambers; small field panels and cockshead hinges. Late C17 roof over main block is carried on A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The large-framed crosswall over the lower side of the passage is earlier, probably C16; it is not smoke-blackened. Kitchen block has a 2-bay roof carried on a C17 truss. Its principals have curved feet. East Dodscott, alias Doddescott House was Dodecota in Domesday. Former home of Thomas Chafe. Source: N.W. Alcock. Devon Farmhouses. Part 1. Trans. Devon Assoc. 100 (1968) p. 18. Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: SS5454419613

External Links

• Wikidata Q26440741

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