See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Good example of a thatched Dartmoor farmhouse, with a number of alterations. Originally a two-room and cross passage plan with an open hall thought to date to around 1300, it was altered in the mid-16 and 17th centuries through the addition of a second chamber above the hall and an extension on the eastern end providing extra rooms to both floors. Outshuts to the rear are probably 18th century in date and are roofed in corrugated iron. Modernisation in the late 18th-early 19th centuries was largely superficial but later major changes in the late 20th century and around 2000 have affected the entire house.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1309061: HIGHER HORSELAKE FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• National Buildings Record: 32142
• National Monuments Record: SX78NW51
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 898259
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX78NW/76/2
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*): 94560

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CROSS PASSAGE HOUSE (Built, XIII to Late 20th Century - 1300 AD? (Between) to 1982 AD (Between))

Full description

Greeves, T., 01/02/1984, Lower and Higher Horselake (Personal Comment). SDV240132.

Roof has been recently opened up, and is considered by P. Beacham to be Medieval and possibly 14th century

Department of Environment, 1960, Okehampton RD, 9 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV275388.

Higher horselake. Good dartmoor farmhouse. Thatched roof with brick and granite stacks. Casements. Two fireplaces with wood lintels. Segmental headed doorway. C17.

Department of Environment, 1987, Chagford, 22 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV350463.

Higher Horselake farmhouse, late 15th century/early 16th century. Improved in later 16th century and 17th century with a mid-17th century extension, modernised in 1982. Granite stacks. Thatch roof; corrugated iron to outshots.
A three room and through passage plan house built across a hillslope and the rear is terraced into it. Projecting rear newel turret. House began as a two room and through passage plan house. Through the later 16th century and 17th century the hall fireplace was inserted and the house progressively floored. Now two storeys. Irregular four window front of 19th century and 20th century casements with glazing bars. The oldest feature in the house is the late 15th century/early 16th century roof structure over the original part of the hall. The whole structure is thoroughly smoke-blackened indicating that the original house was open to the roof. Hall stack probably inserted in the late 16th century/early 17th century. An oak plank and muntin screen of 17th century date. An inserted 19th century oven to fireplace. Roof structural features. See doe list for further details.

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

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

Higher Horselake Farmhouse. Late C15-early C16, improved in later C16 and C17 with a mid C17 extension, modernised in 1982. Granite stone rubble laid to rough courses with large roughly-dressed quoins; granite stacks with their original granite ashlar chimney shafts; thatch roof, corrugated iron to outshots.
Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house built across a hillslope and the rear is terraced into it. It faces north-east with a small unheated service room at the left (south-eastern) end. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage. Projecting rear newel turret at lower end of hall. Inner room parlour at right (north-western) end has an end stack with newel stair rising alongside the fireplace. In fact the house began as a 2-room-and-through- passage plan house, open to the roof from end to end and heated by an open hearth fire. Through the later C16 and C17 the hall fireplace was inserted and the house progressively floored. In the mid C17, probably at the same time the hall was floored, the parlour was added. It is now 2 storeys throughout with secondary outshots across the rear.
Exterior: irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars, those on the first floor rising into the eaves. The front passage doorway is set left of centre in a segmental-headed arch. The oak doorframe is probably C17 but is mostly covered over. The door itself is also probably C17; a plank door with strap hinges and oak lock housing. Secondary doorway to inner room at right end contains C19 plank door. The straight join shows between the original house and the C17 parlour extension.
Roof is half-hipped to left and gable-ended to right.
Interior: the oldest feature in the house is the late C15 - early C16 roof structure over the original part of the house (the hall, passage and service room). It is 3 bays and constructed of timbers of unusually large scantling. The left of the 2 trusses is completely exposed. The front principal is a raised true cruck and the rear principal is a raised face-pegged jointed cruck. The lower sections of the right (hall) truss are plastered over although the curving shape indicates similar cruck constructions. Both have cambered collars and, at their apex, a yoke carrying a square set ridge (Alcock's apex type H). There is a hip cruck at the service end and single sets of trenched purlins. The whole structure is thoroughly smoke- blackened indicating that the original house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. The hall stack was probably inserted in the late C16-early C17. It contains a large granite fireplace with a plain oak lintel. The hall crossbeam is now boxed in and no carpentry detail is exposed in the passage or service room. The parlour extension is wholly mid C17. At the upper end of the hall is an oak plank-and-muntin screen of this date but only exposed on the parlour side; the muntins are chamfered with scroll-nick stops and each has a central vertical recessed strip. The granite fireplace has an ovolo-moulded and runout stopped oak lintel and an inserted C19 oven. The crossbeam here is also boxed in. This parlour end has a 2-bay roof carried on a clean A-frame truss with pegged lap-jointed collar.
An important and attractive Dartmoor farmhouse with its late medieval roof virtually complete. It also forms part of a group with its associated farmbuildings which are also listed. Source: manuscript notes, photographs and measured ground floor plan by Eric Mercer and S Collier dated 1976 in NMR.

Thorp, J., 2015, Higher Horselake, Chagford, Devon, 1-30 (Report - Assessment). SDV361160.

The house has a long and complex structural history. The main block is now two storeys high with a three-room and cross passage plan. The cross passage is set east of centre with the smallest ground floor room off its east side. This has no evidence of an early fireplace and is thought to be a service room.
The room off the west side of the passage is heated by an early fireplace in an axial stack backing onto the cross passage. This was the medieval hall and originally open to roof height. It included a newel stair turret in the south-east corner providing access to the service room chamber before the hall was floored over. This is now a 21st century kitchen (but described as the hall in this report). The large west end room is the ground level of a 17th century extension providing a parlour heated by a fireplace in the gable-end stack with master chimney above. It has a newel stair in the south-west corner.
There are lean-to outshuts along the eastern three-quarters or so of the rear. These were built as unheated service rooms in the post-medieval period; their function is unclear.
Originally built around 1300 as a two-room and cross passage plan house, with a hall open to roof height, an unheated service room to the east of the passage with a chamber above, which unusually may have extended over the passage (accessed from the newel stair turret in the south-east corner of the hall?). Early surviving roof timbers have allowed for dating.
In the mid-late 16th century the fireplace was enclosed in an axial chimneystack backing onto the cross passage. This was inserted into the open hall, and then, probably in the in late 16th century, the hall was floored over providing a second first floor chamber.
In the mid 17th century the house was extended to the east providing a parlour heated by a fireplace in the end wall and with a generous heated chamber above.
Later changes included the addition of the rear outshuts, possibly as early as the 17th century, but probably 18th century in date. Modernisation in the late 18th-early 19th centuries was largely superficial and most changes has been removed by later work. A mid-20th century brick stack on the eastern end wall was removed when the wall was rebuilt around 1984. A full modernisation in around 2000 affected the entire house and included relaying the floors of the cross passage and hall, re-arranging the first floor level with new ceiling levels, subdividing the parlour chamber and inserting a corridor along the south side.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV7540 - Building assessment at Higher Horselake

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.