Description

OTTERTON OTTERY ROAD
SY 08 NE
3/191
- Smiths Farmhouse
- II
Farmhouse. C17, possibly earlier core, modernised in late C19. Plastered cob on
stone rubble footings; stone rubble or brick stacks topped with C19 and 20 brick
and including 1 C17 sandstone ashlar chimney shaft; thatch roof. C19 brick
outshots with corrugated asbestos roof.
Main block faces south and has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. However this is
not the traditional late medieval layout. It appears wholly C17. The main domestic
house was made up by a kitchen at the right (northern) end and hall/parlour in the
centre room with the passage between. The kitchen was built with a gable end stack
and the hall/parlour with an axial stack backing onto the left (southern) end room.
This downhill end room was originally unheated; it was probably a dairy. In the
C19 it was provided with a fireplace backing onto hall/parlour stack. The site of
the C17 stair is not known. The present stair rises up the outside to rear of the
hall, probably erected there in the C19 with the continuous service outshots. Main
house is 2 storeys.
The main house section has a symmetrical 3-window front of late C19 and replacement
C20 casements with glazing bars arranged around the front passage doorway, now
containing a late C19 panelled and part-glazed door. The former dairy end to left
has more similar casements, one on the ground floor and 2 on the first. Roof is
gable-ended to right and half-hipped to left. The original hall/parlour stack has
its original stone ashlar chimney shaft topped with C19 brick.
Interior is mostly the result of the late C19 modernisation but enough C17 work
shows to indicate that the Victorian work was largely superficial and the C17
structure survives intact, much of it hidden by later plaster. Both original
fireplaces are blocked by C19 and C20 grates. In the right room (the former
kitchen) the crossbeam is plastered over but the one in the hall/parlour is exposed;
a C17 soffit-chamfered beam with bar-scroll stops. The former dairy at the left end
has an unchamfered axial beam. The roof throughout is carried on side-pegged
jointed cruck trusses but the roofspace is inaccessible.

Listing NGR: SY0926089387

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26500436

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)