Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 13/04/2020

ST 19 NW
7/69

FENITON
Feniton House, Feniton Cottage and Longmeadows Lodge

GV II

Former rectory, now divided into three occupations. Late C16 - early C17 on older site, remodelled in the early-mid C18, refurbished in the mid C19, modernised when subdivided circa 1970. The older part is stucco on cob with stone rubble footings, the later parts are stone rubble and brick; stone rubble and brick stacks with plastered chimneyshafts; slate roof.

Plan and development: basically a T-plan house. The main block faces south-east. It is double depth and houses the principal rooms at the front, one each side of the central entrance lobby and rear staircase. The left room, a parlour or dining room has a projecting end stack and the right room, once a library has a rear lateral tack. The kitchen behind the dining room/parlour has a rear lateral stack and the rest of the rear part is taken up by the stairs. This part is occupied by Feniton House. In fact the library used to be a larger room but the right end part has been divided off and belongs to Long Meadows Lodge which occupies the rest of a crosswing projecting forward. Here a three-room plan cottage has been made by using part of the library, infilling a carriageway and converting the space into a second room and using a former summerhouse or billiard room at the end of the wing. C20 service extensions to rear. Feniton Cottage occupies a service wing projecting to rear of the left end of the main house. The historic core of the house is the front part of the main block. The axial wall between the front and rear parts is cob like the front one and the roof structure indicated a late C16 - early C17 shell.

The house was made double depth in the early-mid C18 and most of the present layout appears to date from then. It was refurbished in the mid C19 and the wings probably date from then. The billiard room/summerhouse was added in the early C20.
Two storeys, the billiard room/summerhouse is single storey.

Exterior: the main house (Feniton House) has a symmetrical five-window front arranged around the central doorway. The door is a C20 replacement but the panelled reveals and Doric porch with fluted columns, moulded entablature with trigylphs etc is original, that is to say mid C19. The two windows to right are fifteen-pane sashes, the French windows to left may be late C19. First floor twelve-pane sashes. The outer and centre bays have gables over, the centre one with a triangular headed half dormer. All the windows have moulded plaster architraves and the C19 plaster is lightly incised as ashlar. The roof is gable-ended. The front wing (Long Meadows Lodge) is built in the same style, including the front extension. The carriageway arch is blocked by a C20 curving bay window and the doorway alongside is contemporary. The other windows are ground floor fifteen-pane sashes and first floor twelve-pane sashes. The rear of the main house includes another fifteen-pane sash for the stairs.The rear block (Feniton Cottage) has an irregular collection of nine, fifteen and sixteen-pane sashes.

Interior: the main block (Feniton House) has a late C16-early C17 roof over the front part and it is carried on side-pegged jointed crucks. There are some early-mid C18 fielded panel doors on the first floor but the staircase and other detail is C19. Long Meadows Cottage contains mostly C20 detail. Feniton Cottage was not available for inspection at the time of the survey and it might contain features earlier than the C19.

Feniton is an attractive little village containing a good group of listed buildings. A terrier of 1614 describes a Parsonage House in Feniton, presumably here. It was already old at that time and contained a hall, kitchen, buttery, bakehouse, bunting house, malthouse and millhouse on the ground floor with a study and 7 chambers over them.

Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: SY1070899449

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26455907

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

• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper