Description

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON

5/40 Disused farmhouse at Flood

II*

Farmhouse, a Dartmoor longhouse, now unoccupied and used for agricultural purposes.
Late C16-early C17, a mid or late C17 refurbishment of the parlour. Cob on stone
rubble footings; a small section of the front is coursed blocks of granite ashlar
but most of this side has been rebuilt in C20 with brick and concrete blocks; one
cob, one granite stack, both disused; corrugated iron roof (formerly thatch).
Plan and development: originally a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. Dartmoor
longhouse facing east-south-east, say east, and built down a gentle slope. At the
uphill left (northern) end was the parlour with a gable-end stack. Next to this
downhill was an unheated dairy between the parlour and hall. The hall has a newel
stair in a stone rubble turret projecting to rear and has an axial stack backing
onto the former passage. The rear passage doorway is now blocked. Full height
crosswall between passage and shippon which occupies the lower right end on a
steeper slope. Now parlour, dairy and hall have been knocked together to make an
animal byre and the first floor is a hayloft. Apparently the house is essentially a
single late C16 - early C17 build and the hall was floored from the beginning. The
parlour however seems to have been refurbished later in the C17. 2 storeys.
Exterior: the front has been largely rebuilt and includes 3 ground floor window
apertures (none containing windows) and 2 hayloft loading hatches. None can be
proved to be earlier than the C20 although the dairy window is blocking an earlier
doorway. There is a blocked window to right of this and right of that a doorway has
been inserted, into the hall. The 2 other doorways however are original, the left
one is the front doorway of the passage and the left one close by is the cow door to
the shippon. Both contain old oak plank doors. The rear wall however is mostly
original. The blocking of the rear passage doorway shows and above it is an
original window; a tiny 2-light window with triangular headed lights cut from a
single slab of oak. It has never been glazed. There is a similar single light
version in the stair turret. The parlour chamber has a small single light oak
window, maybe late C17. There are no windows this side to the shippon. The end
wall however does contain a C17 oak 2-light window and there is a drain hole and
some blocking of a hayloft loading hatch. The roof is gable-ended to left, steps
down over the shippon and hipped to left.
Interior: contains a great deal of original detail despite the alterations
associated with its conversion to agricultural use which removed the partitions
between hall, dairy and parlour. On the upper side of the passage, behind the
granite ashlar back of the stack, is an oak plan-and-muntin screen containing a
crank-headed door with chamfered surround. The hall fireplace is granite ashlar
with hollow-chamfered jambs and a soffit-chamfered oak lintel. It has an inserted
or relined C19 oven. 3-bay ceiling of soffit-chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams.
The joists have always been exposed and the original floorboards are laid parallel
with the joists. The passage chamber jetties into the hall flush with the front of
the stack resting on a soffit-chamfered and step-stopped bressumer, but this is not
thought to be earlier than the hall ceiling; more likely an allowance for the
hillslope. In the rear wall is an oak crank-headed doorway to the timber newel
stair and another similar doorway on the first floor. At the upper end of the hall
is the head beam of an oak plank and muntin screen with one remaining muntin;
unusually, it is mitred to the headbeam. The dairy and parlour have plain carpentry
detail. The parlour crossbeam was probably plastered from the beginning. The
fireplace has granite ashlar jambs and plain oak lintel and has an inserted oven.
At the time of the survey first floor access was very limited since the hayloft was
full. Nevertheless 3 side pegged jointed cruck trusses were seen over the hall,
passage and dairy. They are clean and probably were plastered over from the
beginning. The truss between hall and passage chambers is closed by a partition
including an oak plank-and-muntin screen.
The lower side of the passage is a full height cob crosswall but includes a section
of granite ashlar in the footings. From the passage there is a tiny doorway to the
shippon; it has a plain oak doorframe containing an old plank door. Most of the
hayloft crossbeams have been replaced in the C20 and the roof is entirely C20 except
for one jointed cruck post in the back wall.
This disused farmhouse is a most interesting and important example. It is a Dartmoor longhouse apparently new built in the late C16 - early C17. Indeed some
elements might suggest a mid C17 date. It lies on the outside but close to the area
of Dartmoor longhouses and is an important example; a cob-built farmhouse in Devon
which has uncontrivertable proof that it was a longhouse.

Listing NGR: SX7075393344

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537484

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.

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