Summary

A 16th century farmhouse, later converted to a house and with 20th century alterations. Petoe retains the characteristic plan form of a Devon farmhouse, with notable surviving features including a plank-and-muntin screen, stone newel stairs, a large kitchen fireplace with oven or smoking chamber, and a soot-blackened raised cruck truss. A house is documented on the site from the late 14th century and has historic associations with the Champernowne family of Dartington Hall; a dated fireback of 1582 that once stood in the hall fireplace may bear the initials of Gawen Champernowne.

Description

A house, formerly a farmhouse, of early to mid-C16 date with later alterations.

MATERIALS: constructed of stone rubble and colourwashed with roofs of thatched reed and slate, and with rendered stone stacks. The roof structure and principal carpentry are of oak.

PLAN: of two storeys and built on sloping ground on a north-east/ south-west orientation. Originally of three-room and through-passage plan, with an unheated inner room (right) formerly with a chamber above, a central hall, and an unheated lower end (left). The hall and lower end were divided from the passage by timber screens and open to the roof. The house has been extended by two bays to the south-west* and now adjoins a single-storey outbuilding*. The roof is half-hipped at the high north-east end and gabled at the low (south-west) end.

EXTERIOR: the south-east elevation has a central passage doorway to the left of a flush lateral hall stack. The doorway has a chamfered timber lintel and large open-fronted porch with stone side walls incorporating internal seats; the slate lean-to-roof is carried on stop-chamfered joists and continues over a square stair turret with a small single-light timber-framed window. To the left is a C19 two-light casement with glazing bars. Further left is the rendered façade of the late C20 addition*, and, to the far left, a single-storey rubblestone outbuilding* breaking forward of the building line. To the right of the hall stack is a C19/C20 two-light casement under a timber lintel, with a smaller casement above under swept thatch. To the far right is a C20 door into the inner room. The north-east gable has a first-floor casement under a half-hipped roof.

The rear (north) elevation has a late-C20 timber conservatory* enclosing the hall, within which is a C19 two-light casement in the blocked rear doorway of the passage. To left of centre is a shallow stair turret with a small upper light and traces of a blocked opening at ground level. To the left are ground and first floor casements to the higher end. To the right is a rendered outshut* with a three-light casement beneath a tiled roof, cut out for the cill of a first-floor casement. The outshut continues across to the right as part of the late-C20 extension*. The extension has French doors below and an attic casement above under a half-hipped gable. The attached outbuilding* has a rubblestone elevation and C21 slate roof with reused clay tile ridge.

INTERIOR: the main entrance opens into the former passage. To the right is a plank-and-muntin screen between the hall and passage; the muntins are chamfered on the passage side only. To the left is a timber stand partition between passage and the lower end (kitchen). The hall (living room) has a fireplace with a large stone lintel and slate hearth, and a chamfered crossbeam with scroll stops. The joists are largely C20, though in the inner room they rest on stone corbels and a timber trimmer set in the solid partition wall. The original full-height hall windows survive, altered; their lintels are visible, alongside at first floor level soot-blackened hall roof truss. A stone newel stair with timber treads rises in a rear turret.

At the low end, there is a large kitchen fireplace with a chamfered timber lintel with scroll stops. A passage has been cut through on the right side of the fireplace, through the oven or smoking chamber. The rear right of the oven has been adapted to a larder. There is a casement in the rear wall of the lower end that is enclosed within a cupboard door to the passageway in the late C20 outshut. A stone newel stair with timber treads rises in a turret; its doorframe has reused roll-moulded jambs, which may have originally been the hall window jambs, and delicate embossed decoration.

The hall roof retains a soot-blackened raised cruck truss with curved fee, a closed truss at the high end blackened on the hall side, and a truss at the low end blackened on both faces. The collars and apexes are morticed, with threaded purlins and there appears to have been no ridge-piece. The rafters, battens and thatch are of later date. The roof over the lor end and over the inner room chamber was replaced in around the C18. The collars are lapped and pegged to the principal rafters, which are morticed at the apex.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: there are two detached late C20/early C21 garage/ shed structures to the north-east of the Petoe*.


* Not of special interest.

History

Petoe is an early to mid-C16 former farmhouse, built on the steep embankment of Bidwell Brook in the parish of Dartington. The site appears on a Court Roll of 1399, and a tenement at ‘Paytow’ was leased from John Knygth of Dertyngton in 1491, around the time of the house’s construction. There were further leases in 1575/9 to the Burt family from the Champernownes who had recently bought Dartington Estate. By this time, the current building was standing as a three-room house with through passage and the hall and lower end were open to the roof. An iron fireback found in the hall fireplace is dated 1582 and the letters G.C. may refer to Gawen Champernowne (1554-1591) of Dartington Hall.

In the early C17, a first floor was inserted over the hall and lower end, and a fireplace in a front lateral stack was added to the hall. At the lower end, a gable stack with a large kitchen fireplace and an oven and/or a smoking chamber was constructed. A stair turret with stone newel stair was added to the front wall, and a similar stair built to the rear of the high end; the chamber over the inner room may previously have been reached by a ladder. Later, the rear doorway of the passage was blocked and a small room created at its north end, although this was subsequently removed.

The 1839 tithe map shows Petoe with a central porch on its south-east front. The building to the south, probably a former barn (Petoe Cottage), which by then may have been converted into the ‘three dwellings’ recorded in the tithe apportionment. Petoe comprised a house, road and three dwellings, with orchards, fields, gardens and a lime quarry and kiln. At this date, the property was owned by Henry Champernowne of Dartington Hall and occupied by John Paige.

The Ordnance Survey maps of 1880 and 1904 depict Petoe divided into two dwellings, both with front projections, and a separate building to the south-west. In the mid-late C20 the house was restored to single occupancy, extended to the south-west to adjoin a former detached outbuilding, and extensively refurbished, including the replacement of some floors and walls and the addition of a rear conservatory. A detached garage and workshop were constructed in the garden to the north-east.

Reasons for Listing

Petoe, an early to mid-C16 farmhouse with later alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an evolved Devon farmhouse of early to mid-C16 date, retaining the characteristic three-room and through-passage plan;
* for the survival of significant historic fabric, including a plank-and-muntin screen, stone newel stairs, a large kitchen fireplace with associated oven or smoking chamber, and a soot-blackened raised cruck truss and other early structural elements;
* for the legibility of successive phases of alteration, including the C17 flooring of the hall and lower end, and the insertion of stair turrets, which illustrate the development of domestic arrangements.

Historic interest:

* for the evidence it provides of long-standing occupation, documented from the late C14 on the site, and associations with prominent historic landowners in the region.

Recommended Books

• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)