Summary
A farmhouse of probable C16 date constructed of cob with a jointed cruck roof.
Description
A farmhouse of C16 date or earlier with later alterations and extensions.
MATERIALS: of jointed-cruck construction with cob infill on a stone plinth. The exterior has cement render and there is some repair and infill in stone and brick. There are C21 alterations in concrete block and uPVC casements. The roof is covered in slate with red brick stacks. The north outshut is constructed of brick.
PLAN: built on a north-west/ south-east orientation as an open hall, possibly with a cross passage and there may have been a parlour with solar above to the north end. A first floor, and possibly a projecting stair turret, were inserted in the C17 but the plan is now altered with an early C20 central staircase and the hall first floor replaced in the C21. To each end are outshuts and the main roof is half-hipped.
EXTERIOR: the principal (south-west) elevation is of four bays with a modern projecting porch to the second bay from the left. The window openings are set irregularly and have been altered. The south corner of the elevation is rounded in render and the south-east flank has an outshut to the lower ground level with altered openings and a brick stack. To the rear the outshut has a porch extension. The rear elevation of the farmhouse has a central brick outshut adjoining a brick chimney with stack above and, to its right, the possible stair turret. To the right end is a brick outshut with garage doors facing north. There is a red brick stack to the north end of the half-hip roof.
INTERIOR: the main entrance opens to an inserted C20 timber staircase with a room to each side of C21 blockwork walls: the former hall to the right and the parlour to the left. To the right of the top of the staircase are two C16/C17 oak ceiling beams. One has mortices for a former cross passage screen, and the second has deep chamfers and bar stops and the end in the front wall is underbuilt in rubble stone. Lower in the wall, within the former open hall, is an embedded large oak bressumer to an infilled inglenook. The other section of bressumer has been relocated to the back wall and a replacement inglenook built within a brick chimney next to the foot of a jointed cruck truss. To the right of the fireplace a window may be a former door opening and the opposite front wall has an aligned door head that may indicate a former cross passage.
The first-floor structure over the hall is a C21 replacement and the oak beam to the C17 floor structure remains in situ in the end wall. The room to the parlour end (left of the staircase) retains the C17 first-floor structure with a central stop-chamfered spine beam and a deep-chamfered beam in the end wall across an inserted chimney. The floor is supported at the staircase end by two bolted modern timbers. To the rear wall of the first floor is a pegged oak doorway with a four-centred (Tudor) arch and steps down to a bathroom which may be the location of a former stair turret. The first floor is subdivided by two C21 blockwork walls. The roof structure is exposed and comprises three oak jointed cruck trusses with smoke-blackening, some replaced purlins and C20 strengthening in the form of collars set low on the trusses. The smoke-blackened.
ridge piece is set diagonally.
History
The farmhouse at Cowlins Farm dates to the C16 or earlier and is built in the jointed cruck frame tradition of the region. It would have originally had an open hall as the central living space prior to it being ceiled over in the C17 and a chimney inserted to take the smoke away. It was probably of two storeys to the north-west end from an early date as indicated by the Tudor-arched first floor doorway pegged to a cruck truss. The door gives access to what may be a former stair turret. An outshut to the south east end may have been added in the C17 or C18 as a kitchen.
The farmhouse is shown on the Devon Tithe Map of 1840 as rectangular on plan and there are two farm buildings shown to the south-east. The First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1889 shows the farmhouse with attached structures to the north-east and south-west elevations and an L-plan farm building to the south east. By the time of the 1905 OS map the addition to the south-west elevation had been removed and that to the north-east, possibly a former stair turret, had been enlarged. The footprint of the building has had only minor changes since then, although there have been extensive repairs and alterations to the interior during the later C20. In the C21 further repairs and restoration are taking place.
Reasons for Listing
Cowlins Farmhouse, Washfield, Devon is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a medieval hall house with C17 adaptations and constructed of cob with an oak jointed-cruck roof it displays the vernacular traditions of the area and the first-floor Tudor-arched door is a notable and rare survival;
* the evidence of change through the insertion of a chimney and ceiling with stop-chamfered beams to the hall, and evidence for a probable first-floor chamber, all illustrate the evolved historic use of the building;
* despite alterations to the layout and the partial loss of floor structures and the relocation of the inglenook fireplace, the building retains a substantial proportion of its medieval fabric.
Historic interest
* the building retains evidence of the living habits of a late medieval household during which period jointed cruck buildings were a regionally distinctive building type.
External Links
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
Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)