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Summary

Middle moor, moor lane. Grade iii listed.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX99SE/4

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1750 AD)

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130100.

Alcock, n. W. + laithwaite, m. /med arch/17(1973)111,114,plan.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130101.

Moorhouse, s. /post-med arch/6(1972)215.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130102.

Alcock, n. W. /tda/107(1975)104,144, table 1, maps 2,3/fields and farms in an east devon parish.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130103.

Doe/hhr:st. Thomas rd/(-/9/1949)104.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130104.

Alcock, n. W. /cruck construction(cba res rep 42)/(1981)111.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130105.

Nmr=sx99se21.

Department of Environment, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV326715.

17th century, refronted in red brick 19th century. Thatched roof. L-shaped, rear is still of cob and has large red stone external chimney on west front (doe).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130089.

Middle moor, moor lane. Grade iii listed.

ALCOCK, 1975, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130092.

There is documentary evidence for this farm only from 1671, the owners and tenants are listed (alcock, 1975).

NMR, CITING ALCOCK 1962, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130095.

The house was excavated after demolition to reveal a turf house of 2 rooms dating to the 13c or 14c. This was replaced by a stone building in the 15c, which had later extension and alterations (nmr, citing interim excavation report). De=the single storey building of about 1550 had a hall/cross passage and a service room. The final building was mainly of ashlar heavitree stone with the upper storey of brick and cob. Two early windows and door posts were still visible in the building (nmr, citing alcock 1962).

NMR, CITING ?LAITHWAITE 1971, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130096.

An excavation was undertaken at middlemoor farm, sowton, sx96369232 in 1973 in advance of demolition. The earliest building was a 13c simple turf building 15m by 6m with walls at least 2m wide, apparently of 2 rooms seperated by a screen. In the 15c, a stone building was erected on a 3-room-and-cross-passage plan (nmr, citing ?laithwaite 1971).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV130098.

Alcock, n. W. /tda/94(1962)201-203/houses in an east devon parish.

Alcock, N. W., Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV57461.

Vis=est -/-/1961 (alcock) a fourth room was added at the back, an addition was made at the service end, and finally the whole block beyond the cross passage was rebuilt and the roof raised. It is built of ashlar heavitree stone up to the first floor, with late brick above at the north end. The west block is of cob, with a straight joint to the stone of the ground floor. The hall has a stud and panel partition with stepped stops and mason's mortices. The beams form a sort of cornice around it with deep chamfers mitred to each other in the corners. The parlour (now the dairy) has two cased beams, and there is some early 19th century panelling around the west window. The west room has two original windows, one with a moulded ledge, and three beams with stepped stops. There are two jointed cruck trusses on the first floor. The central room upstairs has a moulded plaster cornice, a beam at head-height and the door has posts with chamfers and stepped stops. The stairs are late 17th or 18th century.

Laithewate, M., 1971, Middle Moor, Sowton: A Re-Assessment, 77-83 (Article in Serial). SDV130099.

Vis=est -/-/1970 (laithwaite) re-assessment of middle moor farmhouse. A new dating has been made possible by an examination of the house during the process of demolition. Its original form, consisting of a single-storeyed house comprising hall, cross passage and service room, would be appropriate to the house of a wealthy farmer in the late middle ages, especially with so large a hall. The lack of original decorative detail prevents closer dating, but it is not later than the first half of the 16th century. The partitioning of the hall forms a parlour, and the insertion of an upper floor in three separate stages gives a rare view of the way in which a medieval house was modernised in the early post-medieval period. It was again converted in the late 16th and 17th century.
Alcock + laithwaite reassessment: a house with a long hall (ie subsequently divided into hall and inner room) and inserted internal jetties. The screen between the hall and inner room, and the jetty it carried were 17th century, associated with the creation of a spacious parlour at the upper end and the heated chamber above. The hall and inner room were originally open to the roof and had been floored at two different periods in the 17th century (alcock + laithwaite).

Griffiths, M., 1973, Middlemoor Farm, Sowton (Report - Interim). SDV130097.

In 1973 the remains of the farmhouse were excavated by the Exeter Archaology Field Unit. The first phase was believed to be a turfhouse of two compartments, dating to the 13th or 14th century. This was replaced by a stone structure in the 15th century, with a number of further extensions and alterations in subsequent years.

Adams, A., 2010, Sgraffito - Decorated and Painted Plaster on Devon Fireplaces, 2 (Report - non-specific). SDV354436.

Leverett, M. + Manning, P. + Allan, J., 2011, A Guide to the Archives of Archaeological Projects Carried Out In Exeter, 1970-90: Part I (Report - non-specific). SDV347114.

Leverett, M. + Manning, P. + Allan, J., 2011, A Guide to the Archives of Archaeological Projects Carried Out In Exeter, 1970-90: Part II, 29 (Report - non-specific). SDV347115.

Purported site of medieval farm, but no paper archive from 1973 excavation exists. Finds listed all post-medieval, including pottery sherds, clay pipe fragments, glass, tiles, bead, slate fragments. Other details: EA site no 400.

Adams, A., 2015, Sgraffito-Decorated and Painted Plaster on Devon Fireplaces, 160, 170, 175, 180; Figs 7.4, 7.7 (Article in Monograph). SDV365384.

The simplest sgraffito pattern, of alternately toned squares, was sometimes used over an entire surface, but more often the chequerboard was used in combination with other patterns, including floral ones, as at Middle Moor, Sowton, where the squares were also varied with the addition of small quartered circles in the corners, and diagonally halved squares were used on the external wall faces.
A further series of rectangular patterns imitated superior building materials. Each fireplace lintel was painted with three rectangular panels of red and black marbles.
The most striking examples of freehand decoration, with mixed geometric and floral sgaffito schemes were found in the fireplaces at the gable ends of the 17th-century wing. In both instances the floral elements were drawn freehand and honed with scratched wavy lines. Both fireplaces had jambs with huge single flowers (roses?) and curving leaves, arising from handled vases with splayed feet. They show some similarities to the work a few kilometres away at Gulliford Farm, Lympstone (MDV83907).
One of the fireplaces depicted a pair of birds - one of only two known examples, the other being at Honiton Harton, South Molton (MDV73632).
Middle Moor is one of three instances where the patterns on the back wall of the fireplace appear to have been designed around a space for a fireback. The decoration of the rear wall of the ground-floor fireplace was laid out around a plain central semi0circle; on the floor above there was an equivalent but taller reserve. The first could have accommodated a semi-circular fireback of late 16th- or early 17th-century form; the second would have suited the taller style of fireback which became popular in the late 17th century. Since the area where these motifs were drawn, at centre of the back wall, was the most vulnerable to fire damage and is rarely preserved, this feature may have been appreciably more common than the few surviving examples suggest.
The chamber fireplace is a good example of the practice, from the later 17th-century, of enclosing with wooden surrounds> it was found behind a bolection-moulded fireplace of circa 1690-1720.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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