Description

WALKHAMPTON SX 57 SW 13/140 Unoccupied house immediately to - south-east of Higher Dittisham Farmhouse - II

Unoccupied house, formerly longhouse, now in use as store and stabling. Circa late C16 or early C17 with addition of 1663 and alterations in C20. Stone rubble walls. Gable-ended corrugated iron roof. Plan: The building began as a relatively modest longhouse with shippon at the lower, right-hand end, which had a through-passage at its higher end divided only by a light partition. To the left of the passage was a small hall with an axial fireplace backing onto passage. Beyond this was a small unheated inner room and at the rear, overlapping the 2 rooms, was a newel stair projection. In 1663 a parlour wing was built projecting from the higher end and involving a partial rebuild of the inner room. This wing is now gutted internally but preserves its original external door giving independent access. The position of the surviving fireplace and windows suggests an arrangement on the ground floor of a lobby entrance with one or possibly 2 service rooms to the left and the parlour to the right heated by an axial fireplace in the wall adjoining the hall. There was also a gable end fireplace on the 1st floor of the wing. At this stage the hall was probably relegated to kitchen status. The house was probably abondoned in the later C19 and substantial changes were made to it throughout the C20. The shippon was reduced in height, and divided into loose boxes with the passage partition removed and doors blocked; the doorway from hall to passage was also blocked and the original internal partitions in the wing removed. Exterior: 2 storeys. L-shaped with larger range sloping downhill consisting of hall and shippon which is now 1 storey and has 2 stable doors. The original drain-hole survives in its lower gable end. At the higher, left-hand end, of its front wall the blocked passage doorway can be seen. A C20 plank door has been inserted into the front of the hall at the left end of the main range with a loading doorway above. The wing projects at the left-hand end with a 4-centred chamfered granite doorway on the inner face. To its left is the hollow-chamfered granite frame of a 2-light mullion window whose central mullion has been removed. There is evidence of a similar window on the ground floor of the gable end. To the left of the arched doorway, on the 1st floor is a tall inserted C20 window opening and to its right is a granite datestone inscribed "1663 RPM". Interior: Hall fireplace has plain granite lintel and unchamfered granite jambs. Oven in right-hand side. At the higher end of the hall is a chamfered half beam set into the wall. Stone newel stairs at rear of hall. The former parlour preserves its blocked fireplace with granite jambs and ovolo-moulded wooden lintel which has hollow-stepped and notched stops. The 1st floor fireplace in the wing has a chamfered wooden lintel and chamfered granite jambs. Despite recent alterations the main fabric of this house survives with a number of features from both building phases; it represents an interesting example of a modest parlour wing house. Source: Devon Farmhouses III - S. R. Jones : Trans. Devonshire Assoc 1971

Listing NGR: SX5355670471

External Links

• Wikidata Q26611893

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Recommended Books

• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
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  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990