Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/67 Torhill Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, modernised in early
C19 and again circa 1965. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone stacks
topped with plastered C19 and C20 brick top-; thatch roof, corrugated iron and
asbestos to the outshots.
Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing east and built
across a gentle hillslope. A small inner room at the right (northern) end has a
projecting end stack. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage and a
front projecting window bay. The service end room has an end kitchen stack. Stair
in turret projecting to rear of hall was rebuilt circa 1965. This is a house with a
long and complex structural history. The early C16 house was mostly if not wholly
open to the roof and it was then heated by an open hearth fire. At the time of this
survey it was not possible to determine whether the inner room end roof was smoke-
blackened. If not this end may have been floored from the beginning. Through the
later C16 and C17 the stacks were inserted and the house progressively floored over.
The inner room was refurbished as a parlour in the early C19. It may have been an
unheated dairy before then although the stack looks more like a C17 build. 2 storey
house with rebuilt outshots across the back.
Exterior: Asymmetrical 3-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars. The
hall window and the chamber window above are in a full height bay breaking forward a
short distance. Front passage doorway is left of centre and now contains a C20
part-glazed door. Roof is gable-ended.
Interior: contains work from all the main building phases. The passage rear
doorway has a probably original oak round-headed doorframe. The service end room
was rebuilt in the mid or late C17 as a kitchen. The axial beam is soffit-chamfered
with straight cut stops, the same finish as the oak lintel of the granite fireplace.
The large hall fireplace is late C16; granite ashlar with an oak lintel and
chamfered surround. The hall was probably floored a little later and the axial beam
is soffit-chamfered with step stops. The inner room parlour contains an early C19
cupboard with shaped shelves, glazed doors and eared architrave. The fireplace here
is blocked by a C20 grate. The roof structure is the original. The 3 bays over
hall, passage and inner room contains side-pegged jointed cruck trusses of large
scantling and the whole structure, including common rafters and underside of the
thatch is thoroughly smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. The hall side of
the oak-framed hall-inner room crosswall is also sooted but the roof over the inner
room was not available for inspection at the time of this survey.
This is a good multi-phase Devon farmhouse and some other C16 or C17 features are
probably hidden behind later plaster.

Listing NGR: SX7081492221

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26399997

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

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
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  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
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  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)