Description

CHAWLEIGH SS 71 SW 2/34 Toatley Farmhouse - G.V II

Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16 with later C16 and C17 improvements, C17 kitchen block, modernised circa 1981. Plastered cob on rubble footings; stone rubble tacks topped with C20 brick; slate roof (formerly thatch). Originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-east with former inner room at right (north east) end. C17 kitchen block at right angles to rear of hall and inner room with end stack. Inner room has rear corner stack. Hall has large stack backing onto passage. Unheated service end was once a dairy. C20 stair block across back of hall blocking rear passage doorway. Circa 1981 1-room extension on left end is narrower and set back from main front. 2 storeys. Irregular 3-window front of C20 casements, some iron-framed and some with glazing bars. Hall window higher than other ground floor windows. Front passage door left of centre with C20 gabled and slate-roofed porch. Circa 1981 extension recessed on left end has one window on each floor. Roof hipped each end. Multi-period interior: oldest recognisable structure is the hall roof carried on a late C15 - early C16 true cruck truss with cambered collar and saddle poviding for a square-set ridge purlin (Alcocks' apex type C). Truss is smoke-blackened proving that the hall at least was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. In late C16 fireplace inserted into hall, rubble sides with oak lintel the soffit of which was originally provided with a flattened Tudor arch but later mutilated by now-removed flat-topped chimney piece. At same time passage chamber erected which jettied into hall as far as chimney breast. Its bresummer is exposed with front soffit given a flinted moulding of concave flutes with fillets between. In the rear wall a contemporary oak 2-light window with chamfered mullion is set over position of rear passage door. It is now blocked. Hall floored in early or mid C17. Its deliberately high ceiling has original moulded plaster cornice, the same is used in the chamber above. No carpentry detail is exposed in passage or former service room/dairy except roof carried on a late C16-early C17 side pegged jointed cruck. Inner room was apparently rebuilt in late C17 or C18 with diagonal corner fireplace, rubble sides, curving pentan and oak lintel soffit-chamfered with straight cut stops, plain axial joists and roughly-finished. A-frame truss roof with pegged lap-jointed collar. Kitchen block is mid-late C17. Large rubble fireplace has inserted or relined side oven and soffit-chamfered and straight cut stopped oak lintel. Alcove to left is said to be site of winder stair. Crossbeam also soffit-chamfered with straight cut stops and roof carried on side-pegged jointed cruck truss. This is a typical Devon yeoman's farmhouse. The deeds survive back to 1602 and from 1602 until 1981 it was in continuous occupation by the Reed Family. Name also recorded in 1330 and 1394 (Place Names of Devon).

Listing NGR: SS7099610810

External Links

• Wikidata Q26456482

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Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings