Home Farm Cottage and Adjoining Courtyard and Retaining Walls, Countisbury, Devon

Description

COUNTISBURY
SS 74 NE
4/21 Home Farm Cottage and adjoining
- courtyard and retaining walls
GV II
Farmhouse now house. Dated 1829 (on quoin to rear of left-hand wing), probably by
the Revd. W. S. Halliday, with addition dated 1853. Uncoursed sandstone rubble with
ashlar and red brick dressings. Gable-ended slate roofs. Parapeted gables have
ashlar copings with small finials. Ridge stacks with copings, the left-hand one
with one octagonal shaft and the other one demolished, and the right-hand stack with
1 shaft demolished and the other 2 rebuilt in red brick; hall stack with one brick
shaft and one rendered shaft (C20 alterations).
Plan and development: H-plan facing north-east. Central hall with through-passage
at right-hand end and integral lateral stack to rear; axial stacks to cross wings.
Stable with loft above incorporated in rear of left-hand cross wing. Enclosing wall
between rear wings forming stable courtyard. Projecting laundry added to right of
right-hand cross wing in 1853 Tudor Gothic style. 2 storeys with attic.
Exterior: 1:2:1 bay front with projecting gabled cross-wings to left and right,
symmetrical except for the gabled porch in the angle of the right-hand crosswing.
Early C19 3-light wooden mullioned and transomed casements with returned hoodmoulds
and moulded cills, central ground floor window and right-hand first-floor window
with octagonal pattern lights. Pair of gabled semi-dormers each consisting of 3-
light Tudor-arched wooden casement with hoodmould springing from corbels and moulded
cill; the centre lights are pointed and the outer lights are 4-centered the left-
hand window with leaded octagonal-pattern glazing bars and the right-hand windows
with wooden octagonal - pattern glazing bars. 1-light attic window with stone cills
and returned hoodmoulds. Tudor-arched doorway to right of central ground-floor
window, with returned hoodmould and C19 boarded door; mid C19 Gothic stone porch
consisting of brick arch with brick hoodmould and parapeted gable with finial.
Left-hand return front: 3 blocked (rendered) first-floor windows with moulded stone
cills. First floor 4-pane sash with moulded stone cill off-centre to right and
boarded loft door off-centre to left. Ground-floor 1-light window to right with
stone cill and lintel, C20 plate-glass window off-centre to right in C19 opening
with returned hoodmould and moulded stone cill, and blocked window off-centre to
left (rendered), also with returned hoodmould and moulded stone cill. Pair of
probably C20 boarded sliding double doors. Stable door to left with segmental brick
head. Right-hand return front: 3 ground-floor C19 small-paned wooden casements, 2
with flat brick ashes and one to right with segmental brick-arched head. 3 gabled
dormers, one with C19 3-light wooden mullioned and transomed window and 2 with
doorways, linked to higher ground at this side of house by 2 segmental-arched stone
bridges.
Rear: main range with pair of first-floor early C19 2-light wooden casements, with
moulded cills, that to left boarded over at time of survey (July 1987) and that to
right with lattice glazing bars; 2-light mid C19 ground-floor wooden casements to
right. C19 boarded door to left with segmental stone arched head loft door to right
and blocked loft doorway to left; 3 ground-floor early C19 4-pane sashes (centre one
replaced in late C20) with segmental stone-arched heads and moulded stone cills.
Left-hand wing, with 2 first-floor windows to right, one early C19 four-pane sash,
and 1 C20 top-hung casements inserted in former larger loft opening (see straight
joints). 1-light ground floor window off-centre to right with segmental stone-
arched head and pair of probably former open-fronted loose boxes to left with
segmental stone arches and cobbled floors within. Cobbled courtyard, enclosed by
wall to rear, possibly an addition (see straight joints); pair of large boarded
doors to right,under segmental stone arch. Gable-end of left-hand wing with 1-light
attic window and first-floor C19 2-light wooden casements, both with moulded stone
cills.
Laundry wing: symmetrical front of 1:1:1 bays; central 1 gabled break with entrance
consisting of boarded door under brick 2-centred Gothic arch with returned brick
hoocimould and stone shield above dated: "1853." Flanking 1-light wooden casements
with octagonal - pattern glazing bars and returned hoodmould and ground-floor 3-
light wooden casement with octagonal pattern glazing bars, stone cill and segmental
brick-arched head. 2 boarded doors in rendered left-hand gable end, leading to
passageway at side and rear of house.
Retaining wall: to right-hand side and rear of house. Uncoursed sandstone rubble.
Incorporating lean-to with 2-leaf boarded door, and 3 former privies (roofless at
time of survey).
Interior of house: largely early C19 fixtures and fittings. Central ground-floor
room with match boarding. Right-hand ground-floor room formerly divided into
kitchen at rear and at wing at front, now all kitchen with segmental-arched
fireplace at rear. Mid C19 dog-leg staircase in left-hand wing, with winders, stick
balusters and chamfered square newel posts. Splayed window jambs with beaded edges.
The first floor of the right-hand wing was probably formerly a hayloft later
converted to domestic accommodation. Rear parts of each wing incorporates stabling
with lofts above. Stabling in rear of left-hand wing with tiled floors, partitions
with grilles above and boarded doors. Laundry wing retains washing copper, but
attic floor has been removed; steps against left-hand end wall leading to upper
entry of right-hand wing of house.
This was formerly the home farmhouse to Glenthorne (q.v), the house built for the
Revd W. S. Halliday (possibly to his own designs) and also begun in 1829. The
farmhouse displays the influence of the various designs illustrated in P.F.
Robinson's Rural Architecture; or a Series of Designs for Ornamental Cottages (first
published in 1823), a copy of which the Revd. Halliday had in his possession.
Sources: N. Pevsner. Buildings of England. Devon (1952) p. 119; Howard Colvin, A
Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600 - 1840, (1978), p.700. Burke's
Landed Gentry 18th Ed. Vol. 2 (1972), p. 419.

Listing NGR: SS7978549358

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