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Summary

Pound house of at least eighteenth century date, with surviving machinery.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CIDER HOUSE (XVIII to XIX - 1701 AD to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Devon County Council, 1838-1848, Tithe Mosaic, approximately 1838-1848 (Cartographic). SDV349431.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 1904-1906 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV63521.

Map object based on this source.

Watts, M., 2003, Hearn Farm, Plymtree, Devon, A Report on the Redundant Farm Buildings (Report - Survey). SDV355491.

The pound house occupied the west end of an L-shaped building, which forms the south-east corner of the group. This is a two-storey building with cob walls and, formerly, a thatched gable roof. The original entrance was from the farmyard, through a low double doorway, now with external buttresses added on both sides. The wall to the yard is rendered. Immediately inside the door the vertical shaft of a horse wheel which drove an apple crusher remains in situ. The ground floor of this part of the building is largely covered with straw and was not closely investigated. In the rear wall, behind the horse wheel position, is a small 3 light window with a plain pegged oak frame, with internal wooden shutters. Each of the 3 openings formerly had a centrally-placed vertical iron bar, a typical feature of cider houses. At the west end the ceiling is low, with joists spanning between the main beams carrying a timber-boarded floor in the two westernmost bays. The beam into which the pintle on the top of the horse gear shaft is located is of oak, with broad, run-out chamfers, and the first floor joists are housed into it. The cross beam further to the east is a roughly barked timber, and the joists ends are carried over it. The sawn off end of a squared oak beam is visible in the north wall towards the east end of the building, apparently indicating that the first floor ran throughout the boulding until the cart entrance was made at a later date. The walls are of cob, with some brick patching, and with the remains of lime plaster at both ground and first floor levels. At first floor level there is a square in the west end wall, where feed and apples would have been unloaded from the covered passageway.
At the east end of the building a cart or wagon entrance has been formed, a 2.4m wide openeing the full height of the wall having been cut through the original cob, with both sides of the entrance finished with brickwork. The south wing of the L-shaped building is divided off by an oak stud with brick infill partition, which was plastered to full height, with lath and plaster on both faces at firs floor level. At ground floor level the south wing now contains a stable and small workshop. A workbench along the inside of the west wall is lit by a window which, it is understood, was moved from the house. There are low double doors giving access into this building from the yard. The first floor of the south wing is carried on joists spanning between roughly finished beams which divide it into two structural bays. This wing appears to have been slightly truncated in length, its south wall being of blockwork, with access through two sliding doors to a spacious animal house with tubular steel triangulated roof trusses. This building has replaced a long narrow building, possibly another linhay, which is shwon on the Tithe and early Ordnance Survey maps.
It is difficult to determine whether the L-shaped building which housed the cider making equipement and was latterly used as a cart shed and stables is earlier or later than the threshing barn. There is a slight difference in deatil between the roof truss constructions, and the wall plates that span the covered passageway and are built into the cob gable end of the threshing barn suggest that the origins of the L-shaped building may be later, perhaps early 18th century.
The vertical shaft of horse gear, which is of lathe-turned elm and of better quality workmanship than recorded elsewhere in Devon, is suggestive of an early rather than a late date. The pound house is mentioned in 1770. It is possible that the remains of the horse gear date from that time, and the shaft is therefore an important survival.

Ordnance Survey, 2015, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV357601.

Map object based on this source.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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