Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/64 Stone Farmhouse

II*

Farmhouse, former Dartmoor longhouse. Early or mid C16 with later C16 and C17
improvements, renovated circa 1970. Plastered granite stone rubble including
sections of coursed blocks of massive granite ashlar, parlour block may be cob;
granite stacks, one with its original granite ashlar chimney shaft, the others
topped with C20 brick; thatch roof, replaced with slate to rear, over the shippon
and rear wing.
Plan and development: T-shaped building. The low main block faces south-east. It
has a 3-room-and-through-passage. Dartmoor longhouse plan and is built down the
hillslope. The inner room is uphill at the right (north-eastern) end. It has a
gable-end stack. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. The
former shippon, at the downhill left end, was converted circa 1970 and now contains
a garage and bedroom. Rear block projects to rear at right angles to rear of hall
and passage. It has an axial stack backing onto (and blocking) the passage rear
doorway. A small unheated room at the end is now used as a kitchen but was probably
a dairy originally. This is an interesting house with a long and complex structural
history. Remarkably the hall is still open to the roof and is said to be smoke-
blackened from the original open hearth fire. The inner room was probably floored
in the mid-late C16 and the hall fireplace inserted in the late C16. Parlour wing
is mid C17 and thereafter the hall was used as the kitchen. C20 extension on right
(inner room) end. Only the inner room and parlour wing are 2 storeys.
Exterior: main house has a 2-window front of C19 casements containing rectangular
panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway is left of centre and contains a
C20 door behind a contemporary flat-roofed porch. Secondary doorway to inner room
contains C20 door and contemporary thatch-roofed porch. Main roof and wing roof are
gable-ended. C20 garage doorway inserted into shippon and all other windows are c20
without glazing bars. The shippon retains 1 original slit window and the blocked
drain hole shows in the end wall.
Interior: it is remarkable that the hall is still open to the roof. The bases of
true cruck trusses show here and in the passage but the roofspace is inaccessible,
hidden by a probably C17 plaster ceiling. Large granite ashlar hall fireplace with
plain surround and inserted side oven. Probably C17 oak doorframe with chamfered
surround to inner room contains probably C18 2-panel door. Inner room has plain-
chamfered axial beam. Fireplace here is blocked by C20 grate. Parlour wing
fireplace of granite ashlar with soffit-chamfered and scroll stopped oak lintel. It
has an inserted C19 oven. The mid C17 roof carried on 3 A-frame trusses which are
lap-jointed onto posts set in the side walls.
This is an interesting Dartmoor longhouse, an extremely rare example of a late
medieval farmhouse with its hall still open to the roof.

Listing NGR: SX7091090847

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537385

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)