Description

WIDECOMBE-IN-
SX 77 NW THE-MOOR
2/168
Great Dunstone Farmhouse including
23.8.55 gateposts, mounting block and wall
surrounding front garden
GV II

Farmhouse. Late C16 or early C17 with added porch, cartshed and lean-tos at rear.
Granite rubble. Thatched roof; additions at front slated, those at rear partly
slated and partly covered with corrugated asbestos. Large stone chimney on each
gable, that on left rendered and with tapered top; that on right projects with
offsets and has plain top. 2-room plan with through-passage, the left-hand room the
larger (probably the former hall). Large added porch in front, believed to have had
wool chamber in upper storey. Large combined porch and stair turret at rear (now
disguised by added lean-tos); seems to be original. The plan is highly unusual in
Devon for its date in having a gable-fireplace at the upper end of the hall. It may
have been altered, but it is not clear in what way; it never seems to have been a
longhouse. 2 storeys; additions mostly single-storeyed. 3-window front; C19
casements with glazing-bars. The ground-storey windows have drip-stones, that on
left also having an ovolo-moulded wood lintel with run-out stop. Porch, altered in
late C19, has segmental arch of red brick to outer doorway and a flat red brick arch
to window above. In left-hand side-wall, under the eaves, are 7 pigeon-holes with
small slate perches in front of them. Family memory recalls an external stone stair
to left of doorway, leading to wool chamber. Garden wall, gateposts and mounting
block probably late C19. Wall is of granite rubble with original iron railing on
top. Monolithic granite gateposts, having on the garden side of left post a
mounting block leading to a small gate on top of the wall. At right-hand end of
garden is a stone cartshed with gabled roof. In right-hand side-wall of house, in
second storey, is a 2-light wood-mullioned window, probably of late C17 or early
C18.
Interior: ground-storey room to right of passage has fireplace with chamfered and
straight-cut stopped wood lintel; the right-hand side has been widened, the stop
having been cut away by the present owner. Old wooden bench along opposite wall.
Upper-floor beams in both ground-storey rooms chamfered with scroll-stops. Former
outer doorway at rear of passage has rectangular wood frame with hollow and ovolo
mouldings having urn stops at the foot; door has heavy wrought-iron strap-hinges,
possibly of the same date, but the planks have been renewed in C19. At stair-head
is a pair of wood door-frames with flat heads, ovolo-moulded and with scroll-stops;
right-hand doorway has its original studded plank door with wrought-iron strap-
hinges having fleur-de-lys terminals. In side wall of landing is a doorway with re-
set cranked wooden arch. Some C19 plank doors with strap-hinges in bedrooms.
Original roof survives with 5 clean trusses of high quality having 3 tiers of
threaded purlins and a threaded ridge. All have cranked collars, but whereas 3 have
tenoned joints with the principal rafters, 2 (apparently of the same date) have
shaped ends halved into the principals. All the trusses have short vertical struts
tenoned into their feet and partly buried in the wall. Common rafters survive.
Both they and the trusses have gouged carpenter's marks; the trusses are numbered 1
to 5 from the left-hand end. None of the trusses has partition marks, but the stone
wall to left of the through-passage rises straight up to the underside of truss No.
3. Above the lower end and passage the roof-space always seems to have been lofted,
whereas over the hall the bedroom was ceiled at the middle tier of purlins, just
below the collar.
An outbuilding (separately listed) close to the house contains a fireplace and oven,
and may have originated as a detached kitchen.

Listing NGR: SX7147675580

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26551409

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House