Description

The following building shall be added to the list:-

ST 20 SE CHARDSTOCK SMALLRIDGE ROAD

5/10000 Undercleave

II

Farmhouse, now house. Probably early or mid C16, superficially
altered in C19 and C20. Rear wing added C16/C17. Stone rubble,
squared and coursed in places. The left gable-wall (concealed
by later addition) is of cob in upper storey. Slated roof, real
at front, asbestos at rear; hipped to right. C20 red-brick
chimneys on left gable-end and on centre of ridge.
Plan 3-room-and-through-passage. C16/C17 rear wing behind inner
room. C19 extension, in 2 phases, to left. C19 lean-to at rear.
Exterior: 2 storeys. 3 windows wide, with 1 window in extension
to left. All windows in front wall of original building have
C20 artificial stone mullions and hood-moulds; metal casements.
Gabled porch of same stone; C20 plank door. Side-wall to right
has in ground storey of wing a C17, chamfered wood window of 2
lights. Upper storey has 2 late C20 wood casements; also an
earlier one of 2 lights with 3 panes per light. Extension to
left has in ground storey a 2-light wood casement window with 4
panes per light; this occupies the top of a former doorway and
has right joist and base of red brick. Left side-wall has a
plank door with strap-hinges. Other windows in this and the rear
wall have Mid/Late C20 wood casements, except for an earlier-
looking one in rear wall of wing: 2 lights with 2 panes per
light.
Interior Through-passage has stud-and-panel screens at either
side; chamfered studs, the stops concealed; original doorway
into hall with chamfered, slightly cambered head having straight-
cut stops. Behind the hall chimney only the head-beam of the
screen survives, although this is itself a rare survival for
Devon. Exposed joists. Original cranked, chamfered door-head
at rear entrance to passage. Hall fireplace has wood lintel
carved with quatrefoils fitted alternately with shields and 4-
leaved flowers; above these is a cornice-carved with 3-leaved
flowers. Brick-lined oven with stone-framed aperture and shelf.
Carved chimneypieces of this quality are rare in Devon below
gentry-level; the style here is Gothic, but that lasted until
the 1580s in East Devon. Deeply-chamfered ceiling-beams with
large step-stops. Partition with inner room has been removed,
but mortices for 2 studs survive on its underside. Lower room
has chamfered half-beam like that in hall; exposed joists.
Fireplace with chamfered wood lintel; no stops visible. Oven
in back has cast-iron door with maker's name: WIGHTMAN & DENING
CHARD. Screen to passage has plain studs this side. Early
staircase in rear left-hand corner; small C19 wood-framed window
with diamond-shaped centre bar and square leaded panes of old
glass.
Upper storey has 3 pairs of side-pegged jointed crucks, the
curved lower part projecting slightly in the fashion more usual
in Dorset and Somerset. Through-purlins; ridge cut into top of
truss; collars, where visible are tenoned and straight. No sign
of smoke-blackening, except possibly on the truss over centre of
hall, which could not be examined closely. No sign of
partitioning, except for stake-holes in truss above division
between hall and inner room. The whole roof is encased in a
later one,to carry which the wall-heights have been raised. On
the left end-wall is the back of a timber-framed chimney, heavily
sooted on the inside. The rest has been demolished and replaced
with a stone chimney, although a rough cross-beam in the end-
bedroom may have been part of its structure.
Rear wing has chamfered ceiling-beam with rough step-stops.
Window with plank shutters. Its roof has no principal rafters,
the ridge and purlins being carried by 3 posts, rising from the
rear wall of the houses, the spaces between them filled with
wattle-and-daub; the whole is held in position by a collar
birds-mouthed on to the purlins.
Although the house seems to be basically of a single early/mid
C16 build, the survival of the through-passage screen behind the
hall chimney is odd. In medieval houses in Devon, this was
usually removed before the chimney was inserted, and where the
chimney was original, one would not expect a screen to be built
behind it. It could be that the original chimney was timber-
framed, like that at the lower end; or possibly there was an
open hearth for a very brief period at the end of the Middle
Ages, before the chimney was inserted. The broad, chamfered
ceiling-beams are usually C17 in Devon, and this could suggest
that the house remained single-storeyed to a late date, the 2
panelled screens forming "low partitions" in the Devon tradition.

Listing NGR: ST2961401856

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26618336

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
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  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)