Woodbridge Farmhouse Including Former Stables Adjoining South-West, Farway, Devon

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

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.