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Summary

An early 16th century farmhouse with major later 16th century and 17th century improvements.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1307082: RED DOORS FARMHOUSE INCLUDING FRONT COURTYARD WALL ADJOINING TO NORTH

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: ST10NE/166
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• HOUSE (Unknown date)
• FARMHOUSE (XVI to XX - 1520 AD to 1975 AD (Between))

Full description

NMR, CITING DOE, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV131487.

Red doors farmhouse, beacon. Early 16th century with major later 16th century and 17th century improvements, thoroughly refurbished circa 1975. Two-room-and-through-passage plan. Grade ii* (nmr, citing doe).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV131488.

Nmr=st10ne14.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV131489.

Doe/hhr:luppitt/(-/1/-).

Foster, K. + Skinner, R., 01/2016, A30 to A303 Honiton to Devonshire Inn Improvement Scheme, Honiton, Devon (Report - Assessment). SDV359378.

DBA undertaken along a corridor associated with the A30/A303 between Honiton and Devonshire Inn. This study is intended to inform the development of options for improvements to the A30/A303 between Honiton and Devonshire Inn.

The farmhouse is located in an enclosed yard within a small complex of farm buildings. The farm is located within the hamlet of Beacon and is entirely surrounded by houses and other buildings. The house has a secluded setting and views beyond its immediate setting are very limited. Views of the Site are not possible and as such the Site is not considered to be within the house’s setting and development within it would cause no harm to its significance.

Clements, H. A., 1994, Survey of Farmsteads in the Devon Part of the Blackdown Hills, Plan and photo (Report - Survey). SDV344050.

16th century farmhouse.

Devon and Somerset County Councils, 2000-2002, Historic Farmsteads Database, BH042H (Machine readable data file). SDV349681.

L-plan house with irregular 3 - window front and hipped roof. Rubble stone walls. Plastered. Thatch roof. Currently a house, with B&B or other holiday accommodation.

Thorp, J., 2002, Red Doors Farm, BH042001 (Ground Photograph). SDV351518.

Thorp, J., 2002, Red Doors Farm, BH042009, BH042021-BH042022 (Un-published). SDV351519.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

English Heritage, 2013, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV350785.

Red Doors Farmhouse including - front courtyard wall adjoining to north.

Early 16th century with major later 16th century and 17th century improvements, thoroughly refurbished circa 1975. Local stone and flint rubble including some sections of cob; most is plastered; stone rubble stacks topped with 20th century bricks; thatch roof. Plan and development: L-plan house. The main block faces north and it has a 2- room-and-through-passage plan. The large room to left (east) of the wide passage is a parlour with an end stack and it once included a small buttery/dairy between the main room and the passage. The partitions were removed circa 1975 to enlarge the parlour. To right of the passage is the kitchen and it has an axial stack backing onto a staircase between it and the passage. A 2-room plan rear block projects at right angles to rear of the kitchen and it was thoroughly refurbished circa 1975. This is a house with a long and complex structural history. The original early 16th century part of the house is the passage and kitchen section of the main block. This was thought to have a 2-room-and-through-passage plan. The present passage was an inner room and floored over from the beginning. The rest was the hall; it was open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. A passage is thought to have run across the front of the inner room partition at this time although there is no obvious evidence for a blocked front doorway in the exposed masonry of the front wall. (There is an apparent straight join between the original section and the parlour extension). In the mid or late 16th century a large stack was inserted backing onto the putative original passage (now occupied by the stair). This produced an unusually small hall which was floored over in the late 16th century - early 17th century. It may be that the rear block (or part of it) was 16th century but there is no positive evidence since all the carpentry detail there was replaced circa 1975. The main block was enlarged in the early 17th century when the parlour was built with a buttery. At the same time the rest of the main block was rearranged. The former inner room was converted to the present wide through- passage, the putative former passage was disused and the stair was built in its place, and the former hall was downgraded to serve as the kitchen. The function of the rear block is unclear since it was so thoroughly renovated circa 1975. The end stack there dates from this time. The rear block includes a lobby behind the kitchen and it projects on the outside (west). This could have contained a staircase or alternatively a carriageway from the road to the rear courtyard and separating the main house from the rear block. If the latter were the case the projection would have been a porch and the rear block is a service wing. The farmhouse is 2 storeys with an outshot on the left (east) end of the main block. Exterior: the main block has an irregular 3-window front of 20th century casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is a little right of centre and it contains a plank door behind a 20th century gabled porch. The main roof is hipped both ends, steeply so at the left end. The rear block is a little lower than the main block and it has a 1:1:2 - window front (on the outer side) of 20th century casements with glazing bars. The roof is carried down over the projection and is hipped at the end. Good Interior: the original inner room/present passage has an original chamfered axial beam. The full height crosswall on the kitchen side is also original; large oak framing over the remains of an oak plank-and-muntin screen. The roof over this section is also original. It is 2 bays with a side-pegged jointed cruck of large scantling with a cranked collar. There are hip crucks each end and both bays contain single sets of curving windbraces. The original crosswall is not a closed truss; it rises between the windbraces of the inner bay. The section over the former inner room/present passage is clean whilst the rest is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The inserted hall/later kitchen fireplace is very large in relation to the size of the room; it has Beerstone ashlar jambs, an oak lintel and chamfered surround. The large oven in the back projects under the stairs; both were rebuilt in the 19th century but the arrangement has probably been the same since the early 17th century. The small hall has half beams each end, both chamfered with pyramid stops. The rest of the main block is early 17th century and there is a solid wall (the original end wall) between the two sections. The ground floor is now a single room although disused mortices show that a small buttery and corridor past it occupied the end nearest the passage and that the partitions were oak plank-and-muntin screens. The parlour itself has a chamfered crossbeam and a good Beerstone ashlar fireplace with oak lintel cut to a low Tudor arch and has a chamfered surround. Alongside to right is a 20th century stair which is probably a replacement of the original. On the first floor there is said to be a blocked small Tudor arch headed fireplace. The roof here is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. All the rear block carpentry was replaced circa 1975. A tall plastered wall of cob on stone rubble footings projects forward from the right end of the front screening the front courtyard from the lane. Red Doors Farmhouse is a very attractive farmhouse, but more than that it is a very interesting and most intriguing. The early 16th century open hall house is built to a high standard but is a very small if it is a complete house as the roof suggests. It also forms part of a group of attractive buildings that make up the hamlet of Beacon.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4655 - Survey of Farmsteads in the Blackdown Hills

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