Underdown Farmhouse Including Front Garden Boundary Walls, Yarcombe, Devon

Description

YARCOMBE
ST 20 NW
7/179 Underdown Farmhouse including
- front garden boundary walls
- II*
Farmnouse. Late C15 - early C16 with major later C16, C17 and early C18
improvements (including datestones of 1713 and 1719), some C19 modernisation,
thoroughly renovated circa 1985. Local stone and flint rubble, maybe including some
cob in the plastered sections at the back; stone rubble stacks, 2 of which have late
C17 - early C18 Hamstone ashlar chimneyshafts, the third is topped with C20 brick;
thatch roof.
Plan and development: the main block faces south-south-west, say south and is built
down a gentle hillslope. It has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. Uphill at the
left (west) end is an unheated inner room dairy (now converted to a kitchen). The
gable-end stack this end serves the first floor chamber only. The hall has an axial
stack backing onto a wide passage. The passage rear doorway is now blocked. At the
right (east) end is a lower end parlour with a gable-end stack. A 1-room plan
service block projects at right angles to rear of the parlour. It has now been
brought into domestic use.
This is a house with a long and complex structural history. The hall, passage and
parlour section of the main block occupy the original house. The evidence from the
original roof is a little confusing and it may be that the late C15 - early C16
house was larger than the surviving section. This roof is smoke-blackened from end
to end indicating that the house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions and
heated by an open-hearth fire. It probably had a 2 or 3-room-and-through-passage
plan. In the early or mid C16 what is now the lower end (the parlour) was floored
over and a full height crosswall built along the lower side of the passage. If the
passage has always been here this is an unusual arrangement. Between the mid C16
and mid C17 the hall and parlour chimneystacks were inserted, hall and passage were
floored over probably in more than one building phase. By the mid C17 the hall was
used as the kitchen. The front porch was added in the early - mid C17. The rear
service block is probably C17 but maybe C19 with reused beams. The inner room dairy
was added on the end of the hall around 1713 - 19 according to the 2 datestones on
the chimneystack.
The farmhouse is 2 storeys with a leanto outshot on the back end of the rear block.
Exterior: irregular 2:1:1-window front of circa 1985 casements with glazing bars,
the first floor ones rising into the eaves. The passage front doorway is right of
centre behind the C17 porch. This porch was refurbished and raised in height circa
1985. Its outer arch contains a C17 oak door and moulded frame which has been moved
forward from the passage front doorway. The porch roof is hipped. The main roof is
gable-ended. The left (west) gable has Hamstone ashlar shaped kneelers and coping.
Near the top of the gable is a Hamstone plaque inscribed RN (for Robert Newbury)
1713 and there is another in the chimneyshaft inscribed R and M N 1719. The other
(east) end including the rear block contains a couple of C19 or earlier casement
windows containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. Before circa 1985 there was
an oculus window of Hamstone ashlar blocked by the first floor structure. Surely
this dates from later than the flooring of the hall although its position suggests
not. It was removed circa 1985 and now lies in the rear courtyard.
Interior: was thoroughly modernised circa 1985 but still retains its C16, C17 and
early C18 structure. The inner room dairy section dates from circa 1713 - 19. A
roughly chamfered axial beam carries the first floor. The first floor fireplace is
blocked. The roof over is carried on an early C18 A-frame truss with X-apex. There
is a solid crosswall between the inner room and hall. The hall has a large
fireplace with Beerstone ashlar jambs and chamfered oak lintel. It includes a oven
in the back, the housing of which projects into the passage. Alongside there is a
blocked opening at hearth level through the back of the fireplace into the passage.
It is thought to be part of a walk-in curing chamber which once projected into the
passage alongside the oven. The hall has a 4-panel ceiling of intersecting beams
with deep chamfers. The timber-framed oak stair in the hall is probably late C17.
Along the lower side of the passage there is an oak plank-and-muntin-screen. The
back end has been cut through for a C19 doorway to a staircase which also cuts
through the back end of the parlour crossbeam. The parlour was refurbished in the
C19. The crossbeam here is boxed in. The fireplace has Beerstone ashlar jambs and
a chamfered oak lintel, part of which has been cut away to accommodate a C19
cupboard. The rear service block contains 2 C17 axial beams but they are not the
same. Both are chamfered but one has step stops and the other has scroll stops.
The original roof structure survives over the hall, passage and parlour. It is 4
bays and includes 5 side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with single sets of curving
windbraces. The 3 hall trusses have chamfered arch braces. All are smoke-blackened
from the original open hearth fire. The truss over the lower side of the passage is
closed and its infil is sooted on the hall side only.
The front garden is enclosed by a probably C19 stone rubble wall with Hamstone
ashlar coping. It projects forward from the left end of the front as a tall wall
then returns across the front of the garden as a low wall which ramps down as it
follows the slope of the land.
Underdown is an interesting multi-phase farmhouse. Before circa 1985 it apparently
contained some interesting late C17 - early C18 joinery including a cupboard dated
1691.
Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: ST2389707764

External Links

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