Description

WIDECOMBE-IN-
SX 67 SE THE-MOOR
5/172 Higher Tor Farmhouse
23.8.55

GV II*

House, formerly a longhouse. Late medieval, with additions. Badly damaged by fire
in 1982, but has been carefully restored. Granite rubble. Thatched roof, hipped at
left-hand end; added range to right is part-slated and part-covered with corrugated
iron. Granite chimneystack with tapered top (heating former hall) on ridge towards
right-hand end. 3-room and through-passage plan, the former shippon occupying the
lower room to left. The plan is highly unusual for Devon in having its hall
fireplace at the upper end, instead of backing on to the through-passage; the inner
room, to right, has no fireplace. In front of the hall is a lean-to projection,
probably a later addition. 2 storeys; lean-to single-storeyed. House part is 2
windows wide; all windows have C20 wood casements. Stone entrance porch with pent
roof. Former shippon has separate door with plain granite lintel; ventilation slit
to left of it. Addition at right-hand end seems to have been a linhay, judging by
the granite post in the centre. To right of this is a gabled projection with a
flight of old stone steps in front.
Interior : front door has a cambered wood lintel internally. Stone wall between
passage and hall. Latter has fireplace with splayed granite jambs and ovolo-moulded
wood lintel carved with the initials and date RH 1632; oven in back of fireplace.
Upper-floor beams over hall are chamfered with straight-cut stops; joists have
scratch mouldings. Door to inner room has cranked wooden head. Stair to upper
floor is on rear side of stack; bottom step is of granite. Roof retains 4 raised
cruck trusses, 1 over the shippon and 3 over the hall; the feet of the shippon
crucks reach almost to the ground. The crucks, ridge and common rafters are of
primitive appearance, being merely roughly trimmed tree-trunks. The blades do not
meet at the apex, but are linked by a yoke passing through each blade a little way
below the top, this carrying the ridge; the yoke is held in position by a peg
passing vertically through it each side, just beyond the outer edge of the blade.
The thatch formerly had a layer of wattles on the underside, both these and the
roof-timbers being blackened from the use of an open hearth. Presumably, therefore,
this originated as a single-storeyed structure, the hall stack and upper floor
probably being inserted in 1632.
The house was recorded while it was still an unconverted longhouse. It is discussed
(with a plan) in 1) M W Barley, The English Farmhouse and Cottage, 1961, p.110 (fig
17B), 2) E Mercer, English Vernacular Houses, 1975, p.151 (no. 90).

Listing NGR: SX6978272606

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535752

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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)