Description

BURLESCOMBE
ST 01 NE
5/8

Great Southdown Farmhouse

II
Farmhouse. Late medieval origins, mostly rebuilt in the mid C17, cider house added
in the C18, modernised in C19 and some C20 repairs. Plastered cob and local stone
rubble; one stone rubble, one cob stack, both topped with C19 and C20 brick; slate
roof, formerly thatch.
Plan and development: F-plan house. The main block faces south-east and has a 4-
room plan. At the right (north-east) end there is the former kitchen with a large
end stack. The central 2 rooms are the principal rooms and an axial stack between
them serves back-to-back fireplaces. Front lobby entrance in front of this stack.
The left end room is unheated and appears to be an C18 or C19 extension. Original
rear block projecting at right angles behind the kitchen was probably a 2-room plan
dairy/service block and both rooms here are unheated. The 2-storey outshot running
corridors along the back of the main block is thought to be an original feature. An
C18 cider house projects at right angles to rear of the centre of the main block.
House is 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular 6-window front of C20 casements, most of them without glazing
bars. Front doorway is right of centre and now contains a C20 door behind a
contemporary gabled porch. Roof is gable-ended to left and hipped to right.
Similar C20 casements in rear block but rear of main block includes a couple of C18
or C19 windows containing rectangular panes of leaded glass.
Interior is largely the result of C19 modernisation but where carpentry detail is
exposed in the house it is C17. In the main block the rooms either side of the
axial stack have soffit-chamfered and straight cut stopped beams, so too do the
rooms of the rear dairy/service block. The former kitchen however has a soffit-
chamfered crossbeam with elongated scroll stops. All the fireplaces are blocked by
later fireplaces. The chamber over the main block room left of centre has a ceiling
carried on a soffit-chamfered axial beam with bar-runout stops. The roof over this
chamber was replaced in the C20 but the rest is still carried on C17 side-pegged
jointed cruck trusses with dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collars. The roof is clean
except for one bay of the rear block where the timbers appear to be smoke blackened
from a late medieval open heath fire. However the trusses each end of this bay are
clean and C17.
The C18 cider house is part-floored, the open section is nearest the house. The
apple loft is carried on large plainly-finished crossbeams and the roof is made up
of A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars and X-apexes. Part of the cider
press remains but the rest of the machinery has been removed to Sidmouth Museum.
Bisouthedon is mentioned in the Assize Rolls of 1219.
Source: Devon SMR.

Listing NGR: ST0778915001

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611422

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)