Description

BOVEY TRACEY SX 87 NW

5/14 Five Wyches Farmhouse - 23.8.55 GV II

Farmhouse. C16 or earlier, with additions. Stone and cob covered with roughcast. Wheatreed thatched roof, half-hipped. 2 granite ashlar chimneystacks with tapered tops and weatherings on ridge; one well off-centre to right, probably in gable-end of original house, the other off-centre to left, heating the original hall. Tall rendered stack at left-hand end, projecting from front wall, the projection being continued up to left-hand end of building; to right of stack, at its base, a small rounded oven. 3-room and through-passage plan with hall stack backing on to passage; lower room (the former kitchen) with front lateral stack, and parlour with gable stack. C16 or C17 added room at upper end with rear wing at right-angles to it. Lean-to's at rear of original house, probably added in C19. 2 storeys with single-storey lean-to's. 5-window front, but with large windowless area at left- hand end. All windows have C19 wood casements of 3 lights, except for the right- hand window of the ground storey and the left-hand window and second window from the right in the second storey, which are of 2 lights. Original doorway, in left-hand bay of ground storey, and a secondary doorway in second bay from right, have plank doors with C20 6-paned windows cut into them. The second bay from the left is built out slightly and given a half-hipped gable; probably a C19 extension of the hall. Interior: rear door of through-passage retains one of its C16 or C17 chamfered wood door-jambs. Lower room has chamfered beams with step-stops; wide fireplace with renewed wood lintel and C19 brick oven. Hall and parlour, now thrown into a single room, have ovolo-moulded beams with raised run-out stops, where these survive. Hall fireplace has granite jambs and chamfered wood lintel. Added room at upper end (separated from the earlier house by a solid wall and with the back of the parlour stack projecting into it) has chamfered beams with step-stops. Newel stair contrived in corner of projecting gable to hall; probably C19. A timber-framed stair turret, with straight flight of granite steps, at rear of lower room. In second storey, beside hall stack on rear side, a low plank-and-muntin screen, the studs plain towards the room over the through passage. The screen may have been designed to be seen from the other side (now plastered over), possibly from a open hall, as at Nos. 8-12 Fore Street, Silverton. Roof not inspected, but trusses have plain feet. The truss over division between hall and parlour has the sawn-off end of a tie-beam and notches for wattle-and-daub staves on the underside of the principal rafters. Some early features may still be hidden under plaster. Barn (q.v.) at rear of house makes an excellent group, especially when gable-ends of the 2 buildings are viewed from the road. Source: J R L Thorp in Proceedings of Devon Archaeological Society, 1982, pp176-7

Listing NGR: SX8030978266

External Links

• Wikidata Q26619174

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Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)