Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/78 West Fursham Farmhouse including
garden walls adjoining to south-
east
GV II*

House, former farmhouse. Mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, south-
west end rebuilt after collapse circa 1930, modernised circa 1970. Plastered cob on
stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks (one rebuilt in brick circa 1930) topped
with C20 brick; thatch roof, slate to outshots.
Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house built across the
hillslope facing south-east. Small inner room at left (south-western) end with
projecting end stack. Hall has large axial stack backing onto the passage and large
service end room with end kitchen stack and winder stair rising alongside.
Orignally only the inner room was floored. The small ground floor room here was
probably a dairy and probably had no fireplace before circa 1930. The rest of the
house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth
fire. The hall fireplace was inserted probably in the late C16, at the same time
that a first floor chamber built over the passage. The service end room was floored
and converted to a kitchen probably in the late C16 - early C17. The hall was
floored in the mid C17. It is not clear where the early main stair was; the present
stair is C20. 2 storeys with secondary outshots across the rear.
Exterior: irregular 3-window front of C20 casements, the oldest with glazing bars
and latest (including those on left end) with leaded-glass. The front passage
doorway is right of centre and contains a C20 panelled door behind a contemporary
thatch-roofed porch on timber posts. Roof is gable-ended.
Good interior: in the passage, on the back of the probably late C16 hall fireplace,
there is an unusual timber joist ledge supported on oak corbels. The hall fireplace
itself has been lined with C20 brick but is granite ashlar with a chamfered
surround. The passage chamber jetties into the hall flush with the face of the
stack. The mid C17 hall ceiling is a particularly fine example. The crossbeams
have broad ovolo mouldings with some surviving keeled step stops and the exposed
joists are ovolo-moulded with bar-runout stops. The upper end partition is probably
original, maybe an oak plank-and-muntin screen, but is plastered over and no
carpentry shows in the inner room. On the lower side of the passage the partition
is also plastered over. The service end kitchen has a late C16-early C17 3-bay
ceiling; the inner crossbeam has plain soffit chamfers and the outer one is soffit-
chamfered with step stops. The large kitchen fireplace is granite with a soffit-
Chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel. To right an oak winder stair rises over the
oven housing. To left is a cream oven alcove.
The original full height crosswall is exposed only in the roofspace. It is large-
framed. Over the inner room the roof is clean and the original couples of common
rafters survive. The rest of the roof structure, including the common rafters and
underside of the thatch, is smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. It is
carried on large side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars and butt
purlins.
A strip of garden across the front of the farmhouse forms a terrace which is
revetted and bounded by a C19 low stone rubble wall.
This is an interesting multi-phase Devon farmhouse, its late medieval roof intact.
The later features are of high quality craftsmanship, particularly the mid C17 hall
ceiling. Other features are probably hidden by later plaster, e.g. the framing of
the upper hall crosswall.

Listing NGR: SX7150793488

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547983

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)