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Summary

A mid-late 17th century farmhouse which was a rebuild of an earlier house. It was badly damaged by fire in 1932 and is now used as a store. Nevertheless it is an interesting survival of what must have been quite an important house still with a number of good features preserved.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1104549: UNOCCUPIED HOUSE IMMEDIATELY TO NORTH EAST OF HOLLOCOMBE BARTON

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS61SW/7
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)
• Old SAM Ref: SS61SW1

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (Built, XIII to XVII - 1201 AD (Between) to 1700 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, SS61SW1 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV337229.

Site visit 19th September 1973. Hollocombe Barton. Remains of mansion. Original barton badly damaged by fire in 1932 and now used as a store. It was a thatched three-storey cob structure with wooden mullioned windows. Only two storeys now survive and much of cob has been replaced by stone. North side still fairly well preserved with three possibly wooden 17th century mullioned windows, two three-lights and one with two lights. Cob farm buildings form a court and some still retain original wooden mullion windows. Other details: Photograph.

Reichel, O. J., 1897, The Domesday Hundreds of Devon: Part 3. The Hundred of North Tawton, 270 (Article in Serial). SDV337560.

The estate is recorded in Domesday.

Department of Environment, 1988, Winkleigh (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV336028.

Unoccupied house now used as farm building and store. Late C16 or early C17, abandoned as a house in early to mid C20. Partly rubble and partly cob walls. Gable-ended corrugated iron roof. Front lateral stack, of coursed rubble with dripmoulds.
Plan: originally likely to have been 3-room-and-through-passage plan but what seems to have been the lower room to the right was virtually demolished when the house was abandoned and a new one built a short distance away. The passage remains but its rear door is blocked. The hall is heated by a front lateral stack, with an adjoining newel staircase between it and the passage. Unusually there are signs that the stairs continued up to a 2nd floor.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical front with doorway to right at front of leanto (passage reduced in height) and recessed to form porch in front with seat to either side. Early C20 plank door. To its left is original 2-light very deep chamfered wooden mullion window with stone hoodmould above. C20 inserted wide doorway at left end of front wall.
Interior: hall has chamfered and step-stopped axial beam. Rough cambered wooden lintel to fireplace. Solid oak newel stairs adjoining which rise partly up to a 2nd flight. C17 chamfered wooden doorframe at head of 1st flight of stairs. Similar doorframe between hall and inner room. The inner room has chamfered ogee stopped cross beams.
This is an interesting survival of what must have been quite an important house still with a number of good features preserved.

Cox, J. + Thorp, J., 2023, Hollocombe Barton, Winkleigh, Devon. A Heritage Statement (Report - Survey). SDV365821.

Heritage statement prepared in connection with the repair, restoration and conversion of a group of disused, historic buildings ranged around a courtyard. These include a former farmhouse on the south side of the yard, which was partly destroyed by fire in 1932. It was considered beyond repair following the fire and a new house was built just to the south-west. The fire-damaged section of the old house was reduced to a single storey agricultural building.
The farmhouse is a mid-late 17th century rebuild of an earlier house. It is a single depth, three room and cross passage house with the hall and parlour to the east of the cross passage. The hall, originally a combined kitchen/dining room was served by a lateral stack on the rear, courtyard elevation. Inside is an open fireplace with the remains of a bread oven. There is also a cream oven in the west wall, probably inserted in the 19th century for making clotted cream. To the west of the fireplace is a fine example of an internal newel stair which rises to the second floor. The timbers of the stairs are fixed to a massive, reused post. This is considered to be a former aisle post of a 13th-14th century elite, hall house. The doorframe to the first floor is 17th century and has a number of deliberate burn marks. The doorway from the hall to the parlour is 17th century. The parlour is now largely bare of features but was served by a fireplace at the east end and there were formerly two oak mullioned windows on the north side of the ground floor.
The room to the west of the cross passage was known as the New Chamber. After the fire the first floor and front wall was demolished and it became a single storey garage/store. However, an internal stone stack and fireplace survive on the rear wall. The thatched roof of the east end was replaced with corrugated iron.
Although much fabric, particularly from the west end of the building, was lost in the 1932 fire, the building is nevertheless considered significant for a number of reasons. It is a good example of a traditional Devon farmhouse, preserving its 17th century three room and cross passage plan. Despite the fire, a number of features survive including a good quality 17th century stair and also some unusual features such as evidence for a box bed beside the fireplace in the hall, wide pegged floor boards and the fact that the stairs rise, unusually, to the second floor, suggesting this was of higher status than an attic. In particular, the house is considered highly significant for the survival of the vertical wooden post of the stairs. This is thought to be 13th century in origin and to have been retained in situ when the house was rebuilt in the 17th century. This highly significant material evidence is reinforced by the highly significant historical evidence for the early history of Hollocombe.
The 19th century clotted cream oven is considered to have some regional significance.
The house is also significant for its context. It is associated with contemporary farm buildings, a rare survival in Devon, where most farm buildings were rebuilt in the 19th century.

Ordnance Survey, 2023, Mastermap 2023 (Cartographic). SDV365227.

Marked as 'Hollocombe Barton/Mansion (remains of)'. The house is shown on the south side of the courtyard with the former west end, now a smaller garage/store adjoining.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV9004 - Survey of farm buildings at Hollacombe Barton, Winkleigh

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