Sheafhayne Manor Including Terraces on All Sides and Outbuildings Adjoining to North, Yarcombe, Devon

Description

YARCOMBE
ST 20 NE
8/175 Sheafhayne Manor
including terraces on all
22.2.55 sides and outbuildings
adjoining to north
- II*
Mansion, former manor house. Probably late medieval origins but the earliest work
apparent is mid-late C19-early C20. Local stone and flint rubble with limestone and
Hamstone detail; stone rubble stacks, mostly topped with C19 and C20 brick but a
couple have C19 limestone divided octagonal chimneyshafts; slate roof.
Plan and development: a large irregular T-plan house. The main block faces west-
south-west, say west. It has a 2-room plan derived from the hall, passage and
service end of the C16 house. At the right (south) end is a sitting room with a
gable-end stack. The stack was inserted in the early C20 and room occupies the
service end and passage of the C16 house. There is a 2-storey porch to the former
passage front doorway. Next to it is the hall with an axial stack backing onto the
site of the passage. The back door into the hall, the 2-storey porch behind it and
the 1-room plan block to rear of the service end were added in the late C19-early
C20. The main block continues left (northwards) of the former hall with a room
which has united 2 former rooms, an unheated room then a parlour with a front
lateral stack. This section is mostly hidden on the front by a parlour wing which
projects forward and has a projecting outer lateral stack. The main stair projects
to left in the angle between the second parlour or dining room in the main block and
the principal parlour in the front wing. A service wing projects at right angles to
rear of the west end. The first room here is the kitchen. The rest of this block
was refurbished in the late C19-early C20 and the block was enlarged at the same
time.
It is difficult to assess the early structural development of this house since the
late C19-early C20 refurbishment was so thorough and was carried out in the same
Tudor style as the original work. There is a great deal of early work here but it
is often difficult to distinguish between the various phases. For instance the roof
clearly shows distinct mid-late C16 and an early C17 phases but the work from both
periods below is very similar. The layout suggests that the original house began as
some form of open hall house, but the hall was floored over by the mid-late C16.
House is 2 storeys with disused attics in the roofspace.
Exterior: right around the house the house is consistent in style. It is
deliberately irregular and most long sides are interrupted by the porches, wings,
extensions, turrets and the like. All the gables have shaped kneelers and coping.
The windows are all limestone or Hamstone, they have ovolo-moulded mullions ( the
exception is the hollow-chamfered mullions of the front porch window), hoodmoulds
and contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. Most are late C19-early C20 but some
are original. The front porch has limestone outer Tudor arch and the former passage
front doorway is an old oak Tudor arch containing its original studded plank door
with coverstrips. On the apex of the porch gable are a pair of sundials, one
positioned for a.m., the other for p.m. All the roofs are gable-ended. Above a
back (north) door to the service wing there hangs a bronze bell.
Interior was somewhat rearranged in the late C19-early C20 but much of the fabric
and detail is C16 and C17. The sitting room occupying the former passage and
service end includes a length of a probably C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen. It now
lines the solid crosswall between this room and the hall. Is it the lower passage
screen which was moved across when the passage was abandoned? An oak Tudor arch
leads from here to the hall. This has a large limestone ashlar fireplace with a
chamfered oak beam, a fine 9-panel ceiling of richly-moulded intersecting beams and
is lined with small field oak panelling. The 2 rooms beyond the upper end of the
hall have chamfered and step-stopped beams and the second parlour fireplace is
Hamstone ashlar with a Tudor arch lintel. The kitchen has plain-chamfered
crossbeams and although the fireplace is blocked its chamfered oak lintel is
exposed. The main parlour is a good room. It too has a Hamstone ashlar fireplace
with Tudor arch lintel (another to the chamber above) and the room is lined with oak
small field panelling including a frieze of carved guilloche. Some of the chambers
in the main block are also lined with similar panelling and a couple are heated by
small fireplaces. Although some of the panelling has been reset it is genuine and
good and some doors are still hung on cockshead hinges and have original catches.
Early roof structures survive only in the main block. The hall, unheated room and
second parlour is the earlier. It is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses
with mortise-and-tenoned collars. It is designed for attic rooms and there is
evidence for 1 dormer window. 2 of the trusses are closed with wattle and daub and
were plastered over. The surviving plaster over a small crank-headed doorway has a
crudely painted crown of scrolls which, if not C16 or C17, certainly looks it. The
former service end roof is also carried on side-pegged jointed crucks but these are
early C17 and have pegged and spiked dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collars.
There is another main room to the house, the ballroom. This was built in the late
C19-early C20 underneath a terrace behind the house in the angle of the 2 wings.
The roof is the entrance forecourt. It has large windows on the terrace sides,
facing south and east, and a doorway in the south side. There is a parapet around
the forecourt surmounted by a series of vases. The ballroom is also connected by
stairs to the main block and kitchen block. It has now lost most of its fittings.
There are also wine cellars down here. To north of the kitchen wing is the service
courtyard enclosed on 2 sides by low service outbuildings. The stable block is
parallel to the road (at the north end) and it includes a stone plaque recording its
erection in 1860 by Sir T T F E Drake. The gardens to south and west were terraced
in the late C19-early C20 with stone rubble walls and included a pergola.
Sheafhayne is the main house of the Yarcombe Estate. It is attractive and contains
some high quality craftsmanship from the C16 and C17.

Listing NGR: ST2572309287

External Links

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