Description

KINGSTEIGNTON PRESTON
SX 87 SE
5/149 Sampson's Farm Restaurant
21.6.77 (Formerly listed as Sampsons
Farmhouse)

- II

Farmhouse in use as house and restaurant. Early C16, remodelled in the C17; C18 or
C19 rear left wing; renovations and repairs after a fire in the 1970s. Whitewashed
and rendered, probably cob; thatched roof, gabled at right end, half-hipped at left
end, gabled at end of wing; front lateral stack with set-offs, right end stack, end
stack to wing.
A late medieval open hall house floored over in 2 phases, the inner room (to the
left) floored first and jettied into the hall. When the hall was floored a front
lateral stack was added and a projecting stair turret on the rear wall. The
evolution of the lower end is less clear due to the loss of most of the roof timbers
in a late C20 fire, the carpentry details are similar, however, to the details of the
hall, suggesting they were floored at the same time. The C17 plan is largely intact;
3 rooms and a through passage. The lower end room (to the right) was clearly used as
a kitchen although the quality of the carpentry is high. A kitchen wing was added at
the rear left, at right angles to the inner room, in the C18 or C19, presumably
upgrading the lower end to a parlour. An axial rear corridor has been created
between the right end and inner room decreasing the depth of the hall and lower end.
In the 1970s a fire destroyed most of the roof structure but some medieval timbers
survive.
2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3 window front, the eaves thatch eyebrowed over 3 first
floor dormers with 3-light casements, 3 panes per light. C20 plank and cover strip
door to passage to right of centre; 4 ground floor casements; two, three and four-
light, 3 panes per ligth. A deeply-recessed small window at the extreme right into
what may be a curing chamber adjacent to the lower end stack.
The rear elevation has a good chamfered C16 shouldered doorframe to the passage, the
right hand jamb reset, with a 3 plank door with strap hinges. To the left of the
door a small 2-light C17 mullioned window with rounded chamfered heads to each light.
The stair projection has a rounded corner and a C17 2-light mullioned stair window
with deeply chamfered mullions.
Interior : very complete on the ground floor. The lower end room has an ovolo-
moulded stopped cross beam, a plank and muntin screen and an open fireplace with a
chamfered scroll-stopped lintel and stone rubble jambs. The fireplace has a bread
oven but also has 2 low openings, 1 on each side, possibly both originally associated
with smoking chambers. The hall has an ovolo-moulded stopped lintel to the fireplace
and plank and muntin screens both to the passage and the inner room. The room over
the inner room is jettied into the hall, the ends of the joists rounded. The joists
oversail a plank and muntin screen with unusually wide planks and muntins. Inner
room not inspected but likely to contain features of interest. The rear wing has the
remains of an open fireplace with a bread oven.
Most of the roof timbers were replaced after the fire but 1 side-pegged jointed cruck
survives.
A fine evolved house of medieval origns with numerous surviving features of interest.

Listing NGR: SX8565374608

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26389309

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

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas