Description

PLYMTREE ST 00 SE 3/136 Woodbeer Court including front 22.2.55 garden walls adjoining to south

GV II*

Farmhouse. Late C15 - early C16 with major later C16, C17 and early C18 improvements and minor C19 and C20 modernisations. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, the early C18 part is local handmade Flemish bond red brick including some burnt headers; stone rubble and brick stacks mostly topped with C19 and C20 brick, although the hall and kitchen stacks have local stone rubble chimneyshafts; roof variously of wooden shingles, slate and pantiles, formerly thatch. Plan and development: the house faces south. The main block has a 4-room plan, 2 either side of the entrance hall with the main stair rising behind it. The rooms to right (east) are larger than the others. They are the principal rooms; first the former hall with a rear lateral stack, then the principal parlour with a gable-end stack. A kitchen block projects at right angles to rear, not quite at the end and overlapping the hall a little. It has a 2-room plan. The first room here is the largest in the house, the main kitchen with a newel stair turret projecting on the outer (east) side alongside an axial stack backing onto a second room with a disused gable-end stack. (There is a service outshot on the rear end.) Back in the main block to left (west) of the entrance are 2 relatively small unheated rooms. A rear block projects at right angles behind the left end. The first room here is heated by an axial stack backing onto the front end room. The space behind the front block between the rear wings has been built out and accommodates the main stair to right and a secondary parlour to left, the latter heated by a stack backing onto the rear block that end. The rest of the rear courtyard is enclosed by agricultural outbuildings (q.v). This is a house with a long and complex structural history. The original late C15 - early C16 house apparently had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. The entrance hall occupies the site of the passage although it was then narrower. The room to left was the lower end service room. It, the passage and the hall were originally open to the roof, divided by low partition screens and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room end has been so completely rebuilt that there is no evidence apparent for wnether it was open or 2 storeys. There were undoubtedly major modernisations through the later C16 and early C17 but a great deal of the evidence has been removed or hidden by mid C17 and early C18 refurbishments. Nevertheless the hall stack is mid - late C16 and the hall window suggests that the room floored in the late C16 - early C17. The kitchen block was added in the mid C17. It seems likely that the inner room was rebuilt and enlarged as the principal parlour at the same tune. The main stair and second parlour might be contemporary or a little later. Then in the early C18 there was a major refurbishment. This involved building the left and room of the main block, the rear block behind, along with the adjoining outbuildings (q.v), and extensive modernisations throughout the existing house. At this time the entrance hall was widened at the expense of the hall, the hall was given a new flat ceiling, the stair was renewed (and has been remodelled since), ceilings were plastered and so on. The house is 2 storeys. Exterior: retains an unusually high proportion of early windows. The front has 4 ground floor windows and 3 first floor windows. The hall window is late C16 - early C17 painted limestone, 4 lights with hollow-chamfered mullions. The parlour window and those on the first floor are early C18 oak flat-faced mullion windows. The other 2 are C20. The entrance hall/former passage front doorway is left of centre and it contains a probably original oak doorframe, a 4-centred arch with double- chamfered surround and an ancient plank door with coverstrips and plain strap hinges. The gabled porch is C19. The roof is hipped to left and gable-ended to right. The back of the main block (onto the rear courtyard) has an irregular 3- window front including a mid - late C17 oak 3-light window with ogee-moulded mullions first floor centre and an early C18 oak flat-faced mullion window to each floor at the right end. The rear doorway has a mid - late C17 doorframe with moulded surround. The courtyard side of the kitchen block has a 3-window front and all but one are original (that is to say early - mid C17) oak-framed windows. They all have ovolo-moulded mullions and most have transoms; the exception is the small 2-light window central at first floor level which is also the only window in the whole house to retain diamond panes of leaded glass, some of them green - tinged and probably original. The kitchen block doorframe is also original; oak with a moulded surround and urn stops. On the outer side of the kitchen block the newel stair has an old (if not original) window and the main kitchen window has been replaced leaving the original moulded oak frame. The other windows and doorways are mostly C19 although a couple could be early C18. Interior: is very good, showing mostly the results of the major C17 and early C18 refurbishments as superficially modernised in the C19. In the entrance hall the left (service) side follows the line of the original passage partition and the doorway there contains a C17 plank door with a panelled front made up of moulded coverstrips. The first service end room has a roughly finished crossbeam of indeterminate date (probably C18). The second parlour behind has no carpentry detail and the fireplace is blocked but the ceiling has an early C18 moulded plaster cornice. The rear block room has a chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam but the fireplace here is blocked. The main staircase behind the entrance hall is late C17 although it has been much rebuilt. The hall has a late C16 fireplace built of sandstone with a chamfered surround. The ceiling structure is early C18; a square- section crossbeam with up ended plank joists. The upper end crosswall is close- studded and probably C17. The plaster has an early ornamental plaster ceiling featuring a double rib oval and including small moulded plaster floral sprigs around the edges. The fireplace here is blocked by a C19 grate. The carpentry detail of the kitchen wing is wholly early - mid C17. The crossbeams have deep chamfers with scroll stops. Both fireplaces are blocked but their large size is evident; the one in the main kitchen has a cambered or low Tudor arch oak lintel. Also here the courtyard window has a broad king mullion. It is carved with a decorative pilaster below a carved scroll-shaped bracket which supports the window lintel. The doorway from kitchen to parlour is very fine. Its oak frame is richly moulded with large urn stops. The doorway to the newel stair is a plain crank-headed arch. There is a great deal of C17 or early C18 joinery detail throughout the house. The chamber over the first service end room has a small late C16 fireplace; it is limestone ashlar with a probably replacement oak lintel; its jambs are chamfered with pyramid stops. The roof includes 3 main phases. The original late C15 - early C16 roof structure survives over the first service end room, the entrance hall and adjoining part of the hall. It is of a very unusual form for domestic houses in Devon although similar roofs do occur in contemporary churches. It is a common rafter truss roof of relatively slender scantling comprising a series of identical A-frame trusses with plain arch braces. The only longitudinal member above wall plate level was a collar purlin which was pegged into the soffits of alternate collars. In short this is an open wagon roof. There are no original partitions and the roof structure is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The roof over the eastern end of the main block (the upper end of the hall and parlour) is inaccessible. Nevertheless plastered over jointed cruck trusses can be seen, probably contemporary with the similar trusses over the kitchen. The western end and rear block roof is carried on early C18 A-frame trusses with pegged and spiked lap-jointed collars. The rear block roof continues over the adjoining outbuildings (q.v). All these trusses have carpenters assembly marks. From each end of the front early C18 tall brick walls project forward enclosing the sides of the front garden. Across the front are mid - late C19 iron spear-headed railings. Woodbeer Court along with the outbuildings (q.v) form a very well-preserved group; a substantial and prosperous late medieval farmhouse, or small mansion, which was steadily enlarged and modernised to a high standard through the C16, C17 and early C18. It has had no major modernisations since. Great care should be undertaken during any future modernisation lest early carpentry detail be exposed. Moreover early C18 plaster covers many of the walls and ceilings. Woodbeer was Widebera in Domesday. It is mentioned in the Testa de Nevil of 1241 and there are other medieval references to the place. Source: Devon SMR. Alcock and Hulland. Devonshire Farm Houses. Part IV. Trans Devon Assoc. 104 (1972) p. 53 - 55 includes measured drawings of the original doorway and roof. The farmer has a good map of the property dated 1788. The architects Redfern, Gilpin, and Riley of Exeter have measured plans and external elevations (1986).

Listing NGR: ST0659103998

External Links

• Wikidata Q17547003

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Recommended Books

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)