Description

OTTERTON OTTERY ROAD
SY 08 NE
3/186 Pavers Farmhouse including garden
walls to south and east.
GV II*
Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16 with major C16 and C17 improvements, modernised in
late C19 and one end rebuilt circa 1980. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings;
stone rubble stacks with C19 and C20 brick chimney shafts, one with C19 chimney
pots; thatch roof.
3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south with the remains of the service
end room downhill on the left (western) end. (This end was rebuilt shorter than the
original circa 1980). The present layout is the result of a C17 modernisation and
is an interesting variation on the usual plan. The house is unsually wide and has
shallow service rooms behind the main rooms. The present main stair is C19 rising
from the rear of the passage behind the hall. The C17 stair is in a turret
projecting to rear of shallow service room behind the inner room. The finish of the
rooms suggests that the inner room was the kitchen in the C17 and that the usual
service end room was a parlour. The inner room has an end stack and the hall has a
projecting front lateral stack. 2 storeys.
Irregular 5-window front comprising a variety of types and sizes of C19 and C20
casements with glazing bars. Those on the first floor rise a very short distance
into the thatch eaves. The front passage doorway is now near the left end and it
contains a late C19 part-glazed and panelled door. The hall stack is whitewashed;
it is built of stone rubble with large dressd quoins. The top part is rebuilt in
brick with slate offsets and a very tall brick chimney shaft. The roof is gable-
ended to left and half-hipped to right.
Good interior of a house with a long and complex structural history. Much of the
inside is the result of the late C19 modernisation but enough is revealed to
indicate that the C16 and C17 work is well-preserved under C19 plaster. The oldest
feature is the late C15 - early C16 roof over the hall and passage. The lower parts
of the principals are plastered over but their curving shape suggests some form of
cruck construction. All the collars have been removed leaving unusually long
mortices. A small part of one collar does remain indicating that the underside was
shaped to make an ogee or 4-centred arch. At the apex the principals are held by a
yoke either side of a large square-set ridge (Alcock's apex type H). One in fact is
a variant; here the yoke continues over the top of one principal saddle-fashion.
The roof is throughly smoke-blackened indicating that the medieval house was open to
the roof, heated by an open hearth fire and probably divided by low partitions.
From the roofspace it appears that the inner room was floored over probably in the
mid C16, at least that seems to be the date the upper hall truss was filled and the
infill is sooted on the hall side only. However the inner room end was rebuilt or
enlarged probably in the late C16 - early C17. Here the 3-bay roof has 2 probably
jointed cruck trusses with mortise-and-tenoned collars. It is clean.
Most of the features exposed on the ground floor are early or mid C18. There are 2
crossbeams in the inner room; one is boxed in, the other has a plain soffit chamfer.
The shallow service room behind has a soffit-chamfered and straight cut stopped
crossbeam. The hall has a 3-bay ceiling, its crossbeams are soffit-chamfered with
double bar-scroll stops. The surviving part of the service end room has the remains
of 2 axial beams identical to those in the hall. These suggest that this room was
full width and furthermore the stops denote a room of high status, presumably a
parlour. The fireplaces are blocked by C19 grates and the partitions are plastered
over. Most of the joinery detail is C19.
Front garden is enclosed by low C19 garden walls. They are built of flint rubble
with rustic coping with square gate piers on each side.
Pavers is an attractive and well-preserved multi-phase Devon farmhouse with an
interesting C17 plan form. It is also interesting that it is built so close to
another major farmhouse, Passaford Farmhouse (q.v.), just the other side of the
lane.

Listing NGR: SY0897387657

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17547181

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)