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Summary

Farmhouse. Early-mid 16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements. Plastered granite stone rubble, parts are probably cob but others appear to be large coursed blocks of granite ashlar; granite stacks, the hall one still with its original granite ashlar chimneyshaft; thatch roof, replaced with shingles at left end. Hobhouse is a well-preserved late medieval farmhouse. It is special for a house of this status in that it aspired and built a garderobe. Further than this it is quite remarkable that it stands less than 400 metres from 2 other important and well- preserved farmhouses, Nattonhole and Drascombe Barton.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1106095: HOBHOUSE FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• National Buildings Record: 78998
• National Monuments Record: SX69SE48
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 897930
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX69SE/87
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*): 94841

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (Built, XV to XVII - 1500 AD (Between) to 1699 AD (Between))

Full description

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

Hob-House depicted on the Tithe Map.

Royal Air Force, 1946 - 1949, Royal Air Force Aerial Photographs (Aerial Photograph). SDV342938.

The late 1940s aerial photographs show the roof part thatched, with the northern end tiled.

Alcock, N. W., 1981, Cruck Construction: An Introduction and Catalogue, 110 (Report - non-specific). SDV342504.

Hobhouse. Jointed cruck recorded (citing Miss A. Hamlin).

Dartmoor National Park Authority, 1986, Hobhouse Farmhouse, Drewsteignton (Photograph). SDV355877.

Black and white photograph clearly shows this is the listed structure; you can see the part thatched, part tiled roof and the northern porch and front windows.

Department of Environment, 1988, Drewsteignton, 31-32 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV336831.

Hobhouse Farmhouse is an early-mid C16th three-room-and-through-passage plan house at which time only the inner room was floored, the rest open to the roof and partitioned. A fourth room was added to the uphill end in the mid C17th, at about the same time that the hall was connected to a kitchen. Grade II*.

GeoInformation Group Ltd, 2010, 1:625 2010 Colour aerial photography for Dartmoor (12.5cm resolution) (Aerial Photograph). SDV346026.

This aerial shows the roof to apparently be of all the same construction. It does not clearly appear to be thatched at the southern end, although perhaps it is the tiled northern section that has been replaced.

Richards, A. F., 2014, Hobhouse farmhouse, Drewsteignton (Personal Comment). SDV347515.

The Listing description for this building and grid reference indicates that it is the building to the north of the farmyard, however looking at the historic maps, this was built in the mid-late 19th century. The listing description states it faces south, but this should perhaps read west.

Ordnance Survey, 2014, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV355681.

Building depicted on the modern mapping. No longer the dwelling at the site; this appears to be the 19th century building to the north of the farm.

English Heritage, 2014, National Heritage List for England, 1106095 (National Heritage List for England). SDV355683.

4/45 Hobhouse Farmhouse, II*
Farmhouse. Early-mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements. Plastered granite stone rubble, parts are probably cob but others appear to be large coursed blocks of granite ashlar; granite stacks, the hall one still with its original granite ashlar chimneyshaft; thatch roof, replaced with shingles at left end. Plan and development. 4-room plan house facing south and built down a gentle slope. Service end parlour downhill at the right (east) end with a projecting gable-end stack. Rear of passage now blocked by small kitchen lobby. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the former passage (this stack apparently replacing a projecting front lateral stack). Unheated inner room was probably a dairy. The fourth room at the uphill left end is of unknown function. Its gable-end stack appears to have been inserted (or rebuilt) in the C19. Secondary dairy outshot to rear of service and parlour. This is an interesting house with a long and complex structural history. The original early-mid C16 house was an 3-room-and-through- passage plan house. At this time only the inner room was floored and the chamber above had a garderobe. The rest of the house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. In the middle or late C16 a large fireplace was inserted into the hall in a front lateral stack. In the early or mid C17 the service end was refurbished as a parlour with chamber over. In the mid C17 the hall was floored and the first fireplace replaced by another in the present axial stack. The hall was then converted to the kitchen. At about the same time the fourth room was inserted on the left end. Exterior. Irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars, the first floor one at the left end is a C20 dormer. The passage front doorway is right of centre and contains a C20 plank door behind a contemporary gabled and shingle- roofed porch. Secondary doorway into the left end room is similar except that this porch includes 2 reset early-mid C16 oak unglazed windows, a 2-light window with cinquefoil heads on the right side and a small 2-light window with pointed arch- headed lights on the front. Main roof is gable-ended. Similar rear fenestration except that the passage chamber has a C17 oak 3-light window with chamfered oak mullions. Interior contains features from all the main building phases. The parlour has an early or mid C17 plain soffit-chamfered axial beam and a contemporary fireplace in which the oak lintel has the same finish. In the hall, the fireplace is granite ashlar with a side oven relined in the late C19 and there are 2 axial crossbeams (both with plain soffit chamfers) and a series of joists and trimmers at various angles, so much so that interpretation is beyond the scope of this brief survey. In the front wall of the hall there is an alcove provided by the first fireplace here; granite ashlar jambs but missing its lintel. At the upper end a lot of the original partition has been removed but there is here the remains of an oak plank-and-muntin screen (the surviving muntins are chamfered but their stops are hidden). The inner room dairy has a probably original axial beam; soffit-chamfered with runout stops. The chamber above is original and, from the beginning, had a garderobe alcove across the outer rear (north-west) corner. This still has an oak 2-centred arch, surely a remarkable and very rare survival in a house of this status. The upper end extension has a mid C17 has a soffit-chamfered and.step-stopped crossbeam. The roof directly above this room is contemporary; a side-pegged jointed cruck, thee cruck feet exposed close to the ground level. The rest of the roof is original, that is to say early or mid C16. Over the hall-inner room partition there is an original closed truss, an A-frame on a tie beam filled with oak large framing. This partition is clean over the inner room chamber but black on the hall side. The 4- bay portion over the rest of the roof is smoke-blackened right up to the right (east) end. It is carried on a series of jointed cruck trusses held together in a most unusual fashion, by a pair of slip tenons only. Throughout this section the trusses, purlins, common rafters and underside of the thatch are thoroughly smoke- blackened. Hobhouse is a well-preserved late medieval farmhouse. It is special for a house of this status in that it aspired and built a garderobe. Further than this it is quite remarkable that it stands less than 400 metres from 2 other important and well- preserved farmhouses, Nattonhole (q.v.) and Drascombe Barton (q.v.).
Listing NGR: SX6978992126

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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