Description

PETER TAVY
SX 58 SW
5/74 Higher Willsworthy Farmhouse
14.6.52
GV II

Farmhouse. Circa late C16 with C17 additions. Plastered granite rubble walls.
Asbestos slate roof gabled to left and rear wing, hipped to right end. Axial rubble
stack to front range, wing has rubble stack at gable end and rubble projecting
lateral stack on outer face.
Originally longhouse plan but with complex later developments. The original
building had a shippon to the left with a passage to the right beyond which was
only a hall with its stack backing onto the passage and newel stairs to the rear.
Probably in the early C17 a 2 storey hall bay was added at the front of its higher
end. In the second half of the C17 the house was considerably remodelled with a
service room taken from the passage and a part of the shippon and a large wing built
to the rear of the hall comprising a larger hall heated by a lateral fireplace with
a parlour beyond it heated by a gable end stack. The large 2 storey porch at the
front of the former passage is probably contemporary. The original hall was
probably relegated to kitchen at this stage and the old stair utilised by the new
wing with a new doorway cut through. This is a somewhat unconventional extension of
the house as it would be more usual to have built at the higher end of the hall
assuming that it was then a level site.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2 window front of C20 2-light casements with the
windows in the large gabled 2 storey porch at the centre and the projecting hall bay
at the right end. Porch has C20 plank door and a lean-to built on to the front of
the house at either side. Long wing projects to rear from right-hand end.
Interior inaccessible at time of survey believed to contain stone newel stairs and
chamfered cross beams.
Source: Devon Farmhouses III - S. R. Jones: Trans: Devonshire Association 103, 1971

Listing NGR: SX5358381697

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26399347

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

• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)