Description

SX 78 NW DREWSTEIGNTON

7/29 Coombe Farmhouse

GV II*

Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, renovated
circa 1970. Main block is plastered granite stone rubble with some massive boulder
footings at the upper end and some cob on the wall tops, rear block is plastered cob
on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks topped with C20 brick, the hall has
its original granite ashlar chimney shaft extended in brick; thatch roof.
Plan and development: low L-shaped building. The main block faces north-north-
west, say north, and is built down the hillslope. It has a 3-room-and-through-
passage plan with the inner room terraced into the uphill right (west) end. It is
small and unheated, and probably was a dairy. The hall has a large axial stack
backing onto the passage. The long service end is now one room but was 2 rooms
before circa 1970. The inner room has a disused front lateral stack and the end
room has a gable end stack. An unheated 1-room plan block (now the kitchen)
projects at right angles to rear of the inner room. The original late medieval
house was apparently open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an
open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was inserted in the mid or late C16 and the
house was progressively floored over from the mid C16 - mid C17. The house may
originally have been a Dartmoor longhouse but there is no actual evidence for this
in the lower end. The 2 rooms here are probably the result of a mid C17
refurbishment when the end room was given a stack and became a parlour. The room
between it and the passage was apparently unheated until the C19. The hall probably
served as the kitchen from the mid C17 until circa 1970. The rear block is an early
or mid C17 extension and its former function is not known since there were then 2
unheated dairies or store rooms in the main block. House now 2 storeys throughout.
Exterior: irregular 3-window front of late C19 and C20 casements, most with glazing
bars, the first floor windows are half dormers. The front passage doorway is
roughly central and now contains a C19 plank door. Roof is half-hipped to right and
gable-ended to left. Similar fenestration to rear.
Good interior: on the upper side of the passage there is an oak plank-and-muntin
screen beyond the back of the hall. The fireplace is granite ashlar with a soffit-
chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel and its side oven was refurbished in the late
C19. The passage chamber jetties into the hall flush with the face of the
chimneybreast. The fireplace, oak screen and jettied chamber are mid or late C16.
The stone rubble crosswall at the upper end of the hall is an original low partition
and it includes an oak shoulder-headed doorway. The wall is lined with C17 small
field panelling above the level of the missing upper end bench. The window seat is
lined with similar panelling. Cupboard in front wall has C18 fielded panel door.
The probably mid C17 axial beam is roughly soffit-chamfered. The inner room joists
are C20 replacements. On the lower side of the passage is a stone rubble full
height crosswall. No beams show in the lower end. The end fireplace is granite
with a plain oak lintel. The other fireplace was rebuilt circa 1970. The rear
block has no exposed beam on the ground floor and its 2-bay roof includes a true
cruck roof truss. The roof between the lower passage and the inner room end is
original. It contains 3 face-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars and
small yokes at the apexes (Alcock's apex type L1). Alongside the rear passage
doorway one of the cruck feet shows right down to ground level. The whole of this
roof, including common rafters and underside of the thatch is smoke-blackended from
the open hearth fire. The roof over the service end is inaccessible but the bases
of straight principals show suggesting replacement C17 A-frame trusses here.
Coombe is a good multi-phase Devon farmhouse with some good features from all phases
of its historic development.

Listing NGR: SX7197689660

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537242

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

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide