Description

EAST AND WEST BUCKLAND
SS 63 SE
3/65 Whitsford Farmhouse
-

- II

Farmhouse, late C15 or early C16, remodelled and possibly extended in C17, with C19
and C20 alterations. Rendered stone rubble and cob. Asbestos slate roof with brick
stack backing onto the cross-passage, small brick stack at right gable end and axial
lower end brick stack. This end may well originally have been a byre. Solid cob
partitions to each side of cross-passage and between hall and inner room, the hall
originally open to the roof, the inner room possibly an addition, its upper floor
served by a stair turret to the rear.
Complex plan development. Present plan basically 3 rooms and cross-passage
containing principal staircase to its rear, the extended lower end also
incorporating an integral lofted outbuilding which until recently was used as a
stable.
2 storeys. 5-window range. C19/C20 fenestration. Two 2-light casements, 4 panes
per light to left, 3 half-dormers with raking roofs to right with 2-light windows 3
panes per light. Ground floor from left has a 2-light casement 6 panes per light,
3-light casement 4 panes per light, 4-panelled door, the upper panels glazed to
cross-pssage. 6 paned single-light window to right lighting hall hearth area, 2-
light hall window 6 panes per light and 2-light casement 3 panes per light to right
end. Continuous slated outshuts to rear.
Interior: C19 joinery principally intact throughout. Hall has cross ceiling beam
and bressumers at each end with relatively thin chamfers terminating in scroll-
stops. An axial partition has been inserted to the rear of the hall to create a
passage to the inner room. Hall fireplace blocked up but original lintel probably
survives. Inner room has single axial beam, roughly chamfered and unstopped. A
blocked doorway, now a cupboard, to the rear wall indicates access to a former rear
staircase which has been rebuilt and the stair turret probably enlarged. The lower
end room with a pronounced step down from the cross-passage is featureless. The
principal stairs to rear of cross-passage break into 2 flights at the head serving
the room over the lower end and chamber over the hall. Solid cob partitions rise to
the apex of the roof between the hall and inner room, and on the upper side of the
cross-passage, incorporating the hall stack. Solid cob wall between cross-passage
and lower end. A single truss with short curved feet, diagonally threaded ridge
purlin and 2 tiers of threaded purlins survives over lower end, with no sign of
smoke-blackening. The stone rubble wall between the lower end and integral former
stables is clearly an insertion, as is the stack, strongly suggesting that this
extended lower end was once a byre with access from the cross-passage. Over the
hall is an impressive cruck truss, with 2 tiers of threaded purlins, diagonally set
ridge purlin and morticed and tenoned cambered collar. All the roof members over
the hall including the rafters are thoroughly smoke-blackened. The feet of the
principals appear to rest on the hall ceiling beam ie. it is, unusually for North
Devon, an upper cruck truss, but the insertion of hall ceiling may have involved its
conversion from a true cruck. The thin chamfers and scroll stops of the hall
ceiling beams suggest a late date well into the C17 for the insertion of the hall
floor and insertion of the stack. The roof over the inner room has been entirely
replaced in C20, but the solid cob wall between the hall and inner room suggests the
latter may be an addition to the original hall, cross-passage and byre, with 2
storeys from the outset, the upper storey served by its own stair turret. Therefore
if it is an addition, this is likely to have occurred before the flooring over the
hall. Other indications that the lower end served as a byre are the late insertion
of the gable end stack heating the inner room and the fact that until recently the
latter was known as a dairy ie. the service room was located at the upper end of the
hall.
This is therefore an interesting example of a probable longhouse with byre, cross-
passage, former open hall and suggested added upper service end.

Listing NGR: SS6588233331

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26401380

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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)