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Summary

Farmhouse dating to the late 15th-early 16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1325885: EAST PITT FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: ST01NW6.
• Old DCC SMR Ref: ST01NW/58
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*): 95984

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (Built, XV to XVII - 1401 AD (Between) to 1700 AD (Between))

Full description

Child, P., 1987/88, East Pitt, Sampford Peverell (Ground Photograph). SDV365141.

Exterior photos.

Department of Environment, 1988, Sampford Peverell, 102-103 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV51643.

East Pitt Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. L-plan farmhouse. The main block faces north-east. It has a three-room-and-through-passage plan.
See DoE list for full details.

Cherry, B. + Pevsner, N., 1989, The Buildings of England: Devon, 716 (Monograph). SDV325629.

A 15th to 17th century farmhouse. It has good carpentry, including a hall truss collar with chamfers and a carved boss.

Child, P., 1996, Proposed Alterations - East Pitt Farmhouse (Correspondence). SDV347026.

Proposal to convert the front wing into habitable accommodation. At least part of this section of the house was originally habitable accommodation, providing the inner room beyond the hall from which it was divided by the timeber framed cross wall to which the List description refers. The wing is similarly divided from the inner room, and this must indicate that it was originally intended for domestic accommodation, although it shows no evidence of this now; quite possibly the walls have subsequently been entirely rebuilt and it later served service or agricultural purposes only.

English Heritage, 2011, Historic Houses Register (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV346128.

East Pitt Farmhouse.
Farmhouse. Late 15th- to early 16th century with major later 16th century and 17th century improvements, well-modernised circa 1986. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings with sections all of stone rubble; stone rubble stacks with stone rubble chimneyshafts extended with 20th century brick; thatch roof.
Plan and development: L-plan farmhouse. The main block faces north-east and is built across the hillslope. It has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. At the right (north-western) end there is an unheated inner room, probably a dairy originally. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. The service end kitchen has a large gable-end stack with what appears to be a large curing chamber projecting to rear. 1-room plan unheated extension projects at right angles in front of the inner room.
The smoke-blackened roof over the hall and inner room indicates that the original house was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partitions, and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room was floored over in the mid 16th century. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the late 16th century. The service end was rebuilt as a kitchen in the early or mid 17th century. At about the same time the hall was floored over.
The date of the front extension is not clear. It is probably 17th century but may be 16th century. This extension was originally domestic but it and the inner room have long been relegated to an agricultural store, maybe a cider house. Circa 1986 a stair turret was built projecting from the back of the passage. The hall and service end is 2 storeys. The inner room formerly was 2 storeys but is now open to the roof. The front block is also now open to the roof but was formerly 2 storeys. It has been much rebuilt and may once have been a parlour cross wing.
Exterior: the main front has a not quite symmetrical 3-window front of various casements. To right of the door is a 20th century casement with glazing bars. The rest are earlier, oak-framed, and contain rectangular panes of leaded glass. The oldest is first floor right, a 4-light window with chamfered mullions. The other 2 first floor windows are late 17th century - early 18th century with flat-faced mullions and the ground floor left 5-light window is probably 18th century. The passage front doorway is roughly central and contains a 20th century door in traditional style at the top of a flight of stone steps up from the pitched cobble forecourt. The rear windows are all 20th century but are oak-
framed. The front of the wing is blind, but there is a 19th century doorway with a tiny window alongside on the inner side. The main block is gable-ended to left and hipped to right. The front wing roof is hipped.
Interior: on the upper (hall) side of the passage the screen beyond the back of the stack is missing. In the hall the large fireplace is stone rubble with soffit-chamfered oak lintel. The early 17th century axial ceiling beams are soffit-chamfered with bar runout stops. At the upper end is the lower part of a full height oak large-framed full height crosswall in which the timbers are of large scantling. It includes a round-headed arch doorway converted from the original shoulder-headed arch. At the back the central king stud is fashioned to provide a ledge on which the axial beam of the former inner room ceiling rested. There is another full height oak large-framed crosswall between the inner room and front wing. On the lower side of the passage (to the former kitchen) a short length of an oak plank-and-muntin screen is exposed. In the former kitchen the crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. The kitchen fireplace is blocked although the oak
lintel and a large brick-lined oven can be seen in a cupboard. The curing chamber is completely blocked up although there seems to have been an external doorway into it.. The inside is whitewashed and it seems that it was once converted to newel stair. The roof over the former kitchen is a 17th century replacement carried on A-frame trusses with pegged and spiked lap-jointed collars. However the original roof remains over the hall with its ridge and purlins projecting over the inner room.
The open truss is a side-pegged jointed cruck truss of large scantling. It has a cranked collar, the soffit of which is chamfered with a carved boss. Some of the single set of windbraces still remain. This roof structure is smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire. The secondary framing at the upper end of the hall is sooted on the hall side only proving that it was erected before the hall fireplace was
inserted.
East Pitt is a well-preserved and attractive example of a multi-phase Devon farmhouse. The quality of the original work is superior to the usual farmhouse standard of the time.

Ordnance Survey, 2022, Mastermap 2022 (Cartographic). SDV364674.

East Pitt marked.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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