Description

SY 19 NE FARWAY WOODBRIDGE LANE

3/94 Woodbridge Farmhouse including - former stables adjoining to the south-west - II* Farmhouse. Probably early or mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, late C18-early C19 stable block. Colour-washed local stone rubble, maybe with some cob, and probably Beerstone ashlar dressings; stone rubble stacks with plastered chimneyshafts, one of which has soffit-moulded coping and is probably Beerstone ashlar; thatch roof. Plan and development: formerly a 4-room-and-through-passage plan built down a gentle slope alongside the lane to the north-west. Downhill at the left (north- east) end there is a kitchen with a gable-end stack. Between this kitchen and the passage there is an unheated room, probably a former dairy/pantry. There is a corridor along the front between passage and kitchen and at some time the passage front doorway was blocked and a new doorway inserted to left, onto the corridor in front of the dairy/pantry. The hall is above (right of) the passage and it has an axial stack backing onto the passage and a newel stair turret projecting to rear at the upper end. At the right (south-west) end there is an unheated inner room. The stables stand at the right end, set forward from the main house and connecting only at the front end corner. Since the roofspace is inaccessible it is not possible to determine the early layout of the house in detail. Nevertheless it seems very likely that it began as some form of open hall house, probably heated by an open hearth fire. The earliest feature exposed is an oak screen with a shoulder-headed doorway which is early C16. The house was progressively floored over and the fireplaces were inserted in more than one stage between the mid C16 and mid C17. One confusing element of the layout is the fine ceiling in the kitchen. The large fireplace here has an oven but so too does the hall fireplace. It may be that the original lower end kitchen was upgraded to a parlour in the early C17 when the hall was floored over and, at the same time, the hall became the kitchen. The house is now 2 storeys throughout, the stables are single storey and there is a woodshed on the left end of the house. Exterior: irregular 2-window front. The left ground floor window is an early C17 oak 3-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions. Above it is a contemporary 2-light window with chamfered mullions. Both right windows are later casements within early C17 oak frames with their chamfered mullions removed. The ground floor one here maybe as early as the C18 having flat-faced mullions and containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. Both first floor windows have C17 oak sills, they are chamfered with scroll stops. There is a third small ground floor window in the blocking of the original passage front doorway. The present main front door is immediately left of this and it contains a C19 plank door. Another similar doorway has been inserted at the right end to the inner room. The roof is gable-ended to left and hipped to right. The stable block on the right end contains 2 front doors and in the left end a late C18 - early C19 oak window with flat-faced mullions and containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. Its roof is hipped both ends. The leanto woodshed at the left end contains a presumably reset early C17 2-light oak window with ovolo-moulded mullion. The rear of the main house contains mostly C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars except for 2 first floor windows. Over the passage rear doorway is an early C17 oak window with chamfered mullions; it was 4 lights but the middle mullion has been removed. The outer lights contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. Immediately to right is another late C18 - early C19 flat-faced mullion window, also with leaded panes of glass. The passage rear doorway has evidently been reduced in width to accommodate the present C19 plank door. Good interior: the service end kitchen has a good late C16 4-panel ceiling of richly-moulded intersecting beams. The large fireplace here is blocked although its oak lintel is partly exposed and includes a soffit-moulded mantel shelf carved out of the solid. Between this kitchen and the dairy/pantry is the oldest feature exposed in the house; an early C16 oak plank and muntin screen containing a shoulder-headed doorway. There are stone rubble walls either side of the former through passage. There is a late C16 - early C17 oak Tudor arch doorway from the passage to the hall, another in the rear wall to the newel stair and a third at the upper end in an oak plank-and-muntin screen to the inner room. The fireplace is Beerstone ashlar with a chamfered oak lintel. The sides are chamfered with urn stops and the lintel looks as though it might be secondary, maybe associated with the flooring of the hall in the late C16. The oven is an insertion. The crossbeam is chamfered with step stops. On the first floor little early carpentry is exposed although the roof, from end to end, is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The roofspace however is inaccessible. The stable has a cobbled floor which includes drainage channels. The roof here is carried on C19 A-frame trusses. Woodbridge is an attractive farmhouse but more than that it is unusually well- preserved example of a Devon multi-phrase farmhouse and contains a great deal of good quality C16 and C17 craftsmanship. Woodbridge was one of the estates left in the will of one Thomas Coxe in 1619. Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: SY1880295234

External Links

• Wikidata Q17547013

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Recommended Books

• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
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  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
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  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
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  England's Post-War Listed Buildings