Description

GITTISHAM
SY 19 NW

7/135 Goldcombe including walls to
garden to the west

II

House, formerly a farmhouse, including walls to the garden at the front (west).
Circa late C16/early C17 origins, extended and remodelled in brick in circa 1700, C20
renovations. Hand-made Flemish bond brick, rear right wing partly stone; C20 tiled
roof, (formerly thatched), hipped at left end, gabled at right end, hipped at ends of
wings; right end stack and axial stack to main range; axial stack to rear right wing,
all with brick shafts.
Plan: Overall U plan, a west-facing main range with rear left and right wings at
right angles and a rear outshut between the wings. The main range is 4 rooms wide;
an entrance to right of centre into a lobby facing an unheated service room, a large
room to the right (south) heated from the end stack, 2 rooms to the left (north)
heated from back to back fireplaces in an axial stack. The right end of the house is
circa late C16/early C17, the interior features pre-dating the external walls. The
plan type, with an entrance facing a small unheated service room, is more common in
east Devon than other parts of the county. It is not clear whether the existing
right end room was the hall or the service end of the late C16/early C17 house, which
must have had an integral outshut as the only doorway into the service room is on the
rear wall. The left end of the house was probably remodelled as 2 heated parlours
when the external walls were rebuilt in brick: straight joints in the brickwork
suggest that this was done in sections. The rear wings may have been added at the
same time. It seems likely that, whatever the original status of the right end, it
became the kitchen and service end after the remodelling, a small heated room in the
rear right wing is probably a back kitchen. C20 renovations have involved replacing
the thatched roof with tile and some repartioning.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5 window front, a number of horizontal and
vertical straight joints and variations in the colour of the brickwork suggest
piecemeal rebuilding. C20 front door to right of centre; 3 ground floor and 5 first
floor windows, mostly 2-light C19 and C20 timber casements, the ground floor window
right 4-light. To the north west of the house a section of circa 1700 tall brick
garden wall retains round-headed blind arcading. A low brick wall to the garden, to
the west, is also included in the listing.
Interior: The right hand (south) room has a chamfered step-stopped crossbeam, an open
fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel and a plank and muntin screen forming the
partition with the entrance lobby and unheated service room. The west and north
partitions of the service room are of stud construction with plaster infill, the
plaster removed on the west side (facing the entrance). The fireplace heating the
extreme left hand (north) room has a rounded brick fireback, early C18 in character.
Roof: One late C16/early C17 side-pegged jointed cruck truss survives over the south
end with a later roof structure above it. The south wing has been re-roofed in the
last 1970s/80s, the north wing roof trusses are probably late C17.
An interesting evolved house with an historic plan form. The handmade brick
construction is characteristic of limited area of east Devon but appears elsewhere on
the Combe estate, q.v. Parkers in Gittisham village.

Listing NGR: SY1405298447

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26570106

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock