Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/70 Vete Mill farmhouse including
garden walls to south

GV II

Farmhouse. C17, probably earlier in parts, renovated circa 1980. Plastered cob on
stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks all topped with C20 brick; thatch roof.
Plan and development: 4-room-and-through-passage plan house built down the
hillslope and faces south. At the uphill left (west) end the inner room has a
gable-end stack. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. C19
stair between hall and inner room. Of the 2 rooms on the lower side of the passage
(now divided off as a self-contained cottage) the first room was the kitchen with an
axial stack backing onto the second end room. This has been thoroughly renovated in
the C20. It seems likely that this was formerly a shippon or agricultural store.
Nothing shows in the house earlier than the C17. Nevertheless it could easily be
interpreted from the plan as a late medieval open hall house and probably that of a
Dartmoor longhouse. Nevertheless other longhouses in the area appear to be complete
mid C17 rebuilds. Secondary single storey woodshed adjoining at right angles
projecting forward and overlapping the lower left end. C20 kitchen outshot to rear
of hall. 2 storeys throughout.
Exterior: irregular 6-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars including a
French window to the inner room. The slope is emphasized because the hall and inner
room section is taller and the windows here are larger. The roof steps down from
left to right. The front passage doorway is right of centre. It contains a late
C19 door behind a contemporary gabled and slate-roofed porch with shaped
bargeboards. The cottage doorway alongside to right. Roof is gable-ended to left
and half-hipped to right. A blocked first floor opening in the right end wall might
have been a hayloft loading hatch. However the C20 conversion of this end has
hidden or removed any evidence for the use of this end as a shippon.
Interior: despite the layout all the features exposed are C17 in date. In the
passage the back of the stack includes a timber joist ledge. The fireplace itself
is large, built of granite rubble with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The ceiling
here is tall and the first floor is carried on a soffit-chamfered and scroll-
stoppped crossbeam. Similar crossbeam in the inner room and the fireplace here was
inserted or rebuilt in the C19. The roof is inaccessible although the bases of
straight principals of large scantling show suggesting the survival of tne C17 A-
frame truss roof. The lower end cottage was not available for inspection at the
time of this survey. Nevertheless a soffit-chamfered crossbeam and a large
fireplace with oak lintel and side oven could be seen in the kitchen. The lower
roof over this section may be older than the rest.

Listing NGR: SX7357691621

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26593281

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)