Description

EAST BUDLEIGH DALDITCH LANE, Knowle
ST 08 SW
5/64 Dalditch Farmhouse
-
- II
Farmhouse, former manor house. Early or mid C16 with major later C16 and C17
improvements, refurbished in C19 and modernised in 1976. Plastered cob on stone
rubble footings, mended and walls raised with C19 brick; stone rubble and brick
stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; slate roof.
3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-south-east, say south. The inner
room is at the right (eastern) end and its projecting end stack was built in 1976.
The hall has a front lateral stack and the service end room has a large end kitchen
stack. In fact there was a fourth room at the service end but this was demolished
in 1976. The 2-storey service outshot to rear of the inner room was probably added
in the C17 and remodelled in the C19. 2 storeys.
Irregular 5-window front of late C19 and C20 replacement casements with glazing
bars. All the windows are different and some have low segmental arches over. The
front passage doorway now contains a late C19 panelled and part-glazed door. The
roof is gable-ended. At the left end the lower parts of the cob wall from the
demolished fourth room remains on the front with tile coping. The rear outshot
includes a fixed pane window containing small rectangular panes of leaded glass.
There is a C19 tile-roofed pentice across part of the back.
Good interior: on the hall side of the passage there is a late C16 - early C17 oak
plank-and-muntin screen. The muntins are chamfered but the lower section has been
replaced. The present door is C19 but the original doorway remains to the left; it
has a Tudor-arched head and chamfered surround. In the hall, at the upper end, is
the remains of the original full height crosswall. It is large-framed with an oak
plank-and-muntin screen at the bottom. The screen is unusual. The headbeam is
soffit-chamfered over the panels with masons mitres. The chamfers however do not
continue down the edges of the muntins. Instead they are chamfered but with
diagonal cut stops top and bottom. The lower stops are set high enough to
accommodate a bench below. It has a C19 doorway cut through it and most of the
panels are missing. However it includes one jamb of a shoulder-headed doorway.
There were originally 5 panels to right of this doorway and the central panel
remains. It has a mid C16 painting of a saintly figure, probably St. Leonard. He
is cloaked with a halo and his left-hand is raised in a gesture of benefaction. The
timbers around are painted with fronds, flowers, strawberries and the like. The
traces of ancient colour continue up the studs of the framing; the right one
includes a rosette. The fireplace is blocked. The original was probably C16 but
since the stack does not project it might have been rebuilt. The hall was floored
in the late C16 - early C17 with a 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling. The beams
around the 2 panels at the lower end of the hall have broad soffit-chamfers whilst
those around the higher status upper end are richly moulded. The joists are set at
right angles to those in the adjoining panels and may be originally have been
exposed. The ceiling however is early and the cob plaster is backed on water reeds
rather than wooden lathes.
The inner room appears to have been rebuilt in the C17, at the same time as the
outshot. The crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with double bar and scroll stops. The
outshot may have housed the original stairs. The service end also appears to have
been rebuilt in the C17. However there is no crossbeam exposed and the fireplace is
blocked although its massive size can be appreciated from a cupboard to right which
has been cut into its side. There is a blocked oven on the left side. The
demolished room beyond was late C16 - early C17 and a soffit-chamfered and pyramid-
stopped crossbeam was removed in 1976. No early features show on the first floor
although some C16 or C17 oak framing may be preserved behind later plaster. In the
C19 the walls were raised and a new king post truss roof erected.
Despite the C19 alterations Dalditch is an interesting C16 and C17 farmhouse. The
painted screen is of particular interest. Since it clearly represents a saint it
might be pre-Reformation in date. In 1381 Bishop Brantyngham authorized the Vicar
of Budleigh to officiate in St. Leonards Chapel at Dalditch. The painting in the
hall therefore might well represent St. Leonard and the hall could have been used as
a chapel.
Sources: Beatrix Cresswell. Notes of Devon Churches in the Deanery of Aylesbeare
(1920) p 55. There is an annotated plan of the house, a scale drawing of the screen
and painting by John Thorp and some photographs from 1976 in the archives of Exeter
Museums Archaeological Field Unit.

Listing NGR: SY0479983548

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26389784

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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