Description

SX 68 NE GIDLEIGH CHAPPLE

3/185 Chapple Farmhouse including garden
- railings adjoining to south
22.2.67
GV II

Farmhouse. C17 or earlier, thoroughly refurbished and somewhat rearranged in mid
C19. Plastered granite stone rubble; granite stacks, 2 with granite ashlar chimney
shafts and one replaced with plastered brick; slate roof (formerly thatch although
the principal room section has probably been slated since the mid C19), corrugated
iron roof to outshots.
Plan: long 5-room plan building built across a hillslope facing south. The house is
basically as it was rearranged in the mid C19. At the left (west) end there is an
unheated service room containing a woodstore. The 2 rooms to the right of this are
the principal rooms and between them is an entrance hall with the main stair rising
against the rear wall. The left end 2 rooms are the service rooms and they are
separated by a cross passage with the service stair rising against the rear wall.
An axial stack between the principal rooms and the service rooms serves back-to-back
fireplaces. The other main room has an axial stack backing onto the woodstore and
the end room of the service rooms has a gable end stack. It seems likely that the
original house was C17 or earlier and had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan and may
have been a Dartmoor longhouse. However, the mid C19 refurbishment was so extensive
that insufficient of the early fabric is now exposed to determine the former layout.
It is 2 storeys with C19 outshots across the rear.
Exterior: Overall 8-window front in 2 sections. There is no window, only a C19
plank door, to the woodstore at the left end. The principal rooms have a
symmetrical 3-window section around a central doorway. They are C19 16-pane sashes
under low segmental arches. The service end has a nearly symmetrical 5-window
arrangement (only 2 to the ground floor) and central doorway. These are C19 and C20
casements, the oldest containing rectangular panes of leaded glass, the others with
glazing bars. Both doorways contain C19 part-glazed 6-panel doors behind C20 gabled
rustic timber porches. The roof is gable-ended and the principal room end has a
lower pitch than the service end. To rear a C19 service door near the end wall.
The rest is taken up by an attractive continuous outshot.
Interior: Most of what shows is the result of the mid C19 refurbishment including
just about all the joinery detail. The oldest fabric is exposed in the inner of the
principal rooms. The C17 crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with straight cut stops.
The fireplace is contemporary; built of granite ashlar with hollow-chamfered
surround. Half is blocked by the C19 oven housing, inserted with the kitchen
fireplace behind. Alongside is a C19 cream oven. The kitchen fireplace has a plain
chamfered oak lintel and the crossbeams of the service rooms are similarly finished.
The roof is inaccessible for the most part. The truss over the woodstore however is
a late C17 - early C18 A-frame with pegged and spiked lap-jointed collar. A jointed
cruck is recorded here according to Devon SMR but none show. Also the eastern gable
end shows that the roof has been raised at some time.
From the right end of the front a low granite wall with C19 cast iron railings on
top extends southwards towards the nearby barn (q.v) and includes a gateway flanked
by monolithic square-section gate posts with rounded heads and containing a C19
wrought iron gate.
Chapple Farmhouse is one of attractive group of listed buildings in a hamlet which
also includes West Chapple (q.v). Although most of what can be seen is mid C19 the
farmhouse is evidently much older and older features are probably hidden behind C19
plaster.

Listing NGR: SX6715189118

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400053

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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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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  For the Record
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  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)