Description

SX 78 NW CHAGFORD MIDDLECOTT

4/136 Milking parlour at Old
- Middlecott Farmyard

GV II

Milking parlour, formerly the farmhouse here. Late C15-early C16, converted to
agricultural use in the C19 (maybe earlier) and modernised in C20. Granite stone
rubble laid to rough courses with dressed quoins and topped with cob; corrugated
iron roof (formerly thatch).
Plan: long block built down a slope and facing north-east onto the farmyard.
Stable block (q.v.) is attached to left (north-western) end. The interior of the
original house here has been completely gutted but it seems that it was a 3-room-and-
through-passage plan and probably was a Dartmoor longhouse with the shippon at the
lower (south-eastern) end. It was a hall house open to the roof. There is no sign
of any fireplaces. Opposing doorways, though rebuilt, may represent the site of the
through passage. The inner room end is partitioned off as a calf house.
Exterior: the putative front passage doorway has a rubble-walled porch with
monopitch roof. A shed covers the left end and there is a single window to right.
It and windows to rear are C20. There is no obvious sign of original openings in the
walls. Roof is gable-ended to left and half-hipped to right.
Interior is that of a C20 milking parlour except for the remains of the original
roof. Much of the roof has been replaced but of the 6 trusses only the upper end 1
appears to have been completely replaced. The rest remain to some extent varying
from a single surviving cruck post over the hall to 1 virtually complete truss over
the shippon. All are raised crucks. There is 1 true cruck blade. The rest are
face-pegged jointed crucks and some have locking strips halved and pegged into their
sides. At the apex is a yoke and setting for a square set ridge (Alcock's apex type
H). There are no trenches or mortices for purlins. Presumably they were pegged onto
the backs of the principals. The timbers are stained and only arguably smoke-
blackened.
This milking parlour has the shell and remains of the roof of a late medieval
farmhouse, probably a Dartmoor longhouse. It forms part of an attractive group of
traditional Dartmoor farmbuildings with the stable (q.v.) and barn (q.v.).
Middlecott is a Domesday settlement.
Source: Manuscript notes and elevation of truss by Commander E H D Williams (July
1980) in NMR.

Listing NGR: SX7159386154

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400071

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

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014