Description

BOVEY TRACEY
SX 77 NE

4/31 Yarner House
-

- II

Large house. C17 or earlier, remodelled and considerably enlarged in C19. Occupies
a prominent site nearly 800 feet above sea-level. Solid, rendered walls. Slated
roofs, mostly concealed behind high crenellated parapets. Rendered chimneystacks
with C19 tops, mainly crenellated but some in south-west corner with tapered tops.
L-shaped, the old house (which has very thick walls) being contained in a square
block at the south-east end. 3 storeys. The old house has a 3-window entrance-
front to south-east and a 4-window front of equal quality to north-east. Ground and
second-storey windows have decorated stucco friezes and cornices on consoles.
Ground-storey windows have mullioned-and-transomed wood casements with 2 panes per
light, while the second and third-storey windows have ordinary small-paned wood
casements. In the north-east front the left-hand window in each of the second and
third storeys differs in having small panes with a margin of quarter-panes. In
centre of south-east front is a single-storeyed entrance-porch with flat, parapeted
roof; chamfered, round-headed granite doorway, probably of C17. The north-east
front has a projecting chimneystack with offsets, placed between the 2 left-hand
windows. The C19 addition, which more than doubles the size of the house, adjoins
the old house on the north-west and is similar to it only in having the same
crenellated parapet and chimney-tops. The windows are much larger and have fewer
glazing-bars; there is an entrance-porch at the south-east end.
Interior: the 2 north-east rooms on each of the ground and second storeys have
chamfered beams with scroll-stops (where the beam-ends are exposed). This implies
that the C17 house was 3-storeyed and (in Devon) suggests that the building was of
more than farmhouse status; it is impossible to be certain because the roof has
been rebuilt in C19. Other early features are likely to be concealed under plaster.
The C19 interior details are not of great interest. The added wing contains a large
plain wooden staircase and 2 papier mache ceilings in neo-Elizabethan style.
Little is known of the history of the house. The Burnet Morris index quotes the
will of Moses Stoneham of Yarner (d.1678) 'in which he says that he had built a new
house'; Stoneham, the 2nd son of a Norfolk rector, was born circa 1638 and came to
Devon between 1650-7. The earliest title deed of 1706 shows the Yarner estate being
sold for the large sum of £1196; by 1829 it contained 500 acres. At the end of C19
it passed to (Sir) Harry Eve, M.P. for Ashburton and later a senior judge in the
Chancery Division. However, the 1918 sale catalogue, while referring to new
outbuildings of 1896 and 1908, makes no mention of alteration to the house.
Sources: Burnet Morris index is Exeter Westcountry Studies Library. Devon Record
Office: 1477M/T1-56, E1-2; 547 B/P1783.

Listing NGR: SX7755478142

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26389689

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.

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