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Summary

Former late 16th or early 17th century school-house building at Yeo Farm, Chagford. It may have originally been built as a detached kitchen or bake house or probably more likely as a cottage fronting the original road through the settlement. Simple, two-storeyed granite rubble building with one room on each floor. The ground floor has a large fireplace with an oven and a possible curing chamber. The cottage is now roofed with corrugated iron but was originally thatched. Located in the northern part of the farmyard, adjacent to the 18th century cart shed.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1326036: THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 7 METRES NORTH-WEST OF YEO FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX68NE/34/9
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*): 94627

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• COTTAGE NON SPECIFIC (XV to Post Medieval - 1401 AD to 1750 AD)
• KITCHEN (Built, XVI to XVIII - 1550 AD to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Griffiths, D., 10/01/1989, Yeo Farm, Chagford, 13-14 (Report - Interim). SDV351692.

The cottage or schoolhouse, now an outbuilding. Recorded by the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments as a late 16th century house. However, the Department of Environment described it as a detached kitchen or bakehouse, presumably because of its wide fireplace, oven and curing chamber. It seems rather grand to be a purely service building and since it fronts the road that originally ran through the settlement it is probably a cottage, possibly the one included with lesser Yeo in the 1801 Land Tax assessment.
A low two-storeyed building of granite rubble with a central doorway, which appears offset due to the massive chimney in the left gable wall. Granite framed windows on the right hand side, the central mullions now removed. The left hand side of the front is blank apart from a single slit window which appears to have lit a staircase next to the chimney. There is an added lean-to at the left hand end. The right gable wall has two sets of quoins adjoining the back wall which has been rebuilt a little further back at this end, suggesting that the original plan was wedge-shaped.
The ground floor comprises one large room with a large fireplace with an oven and a possible curing chamber. The upper floor is really only half a storey with most of it being in the roofspace. The windows are virtually at floor level. The reduction in thickness of the gable walls suggests that the roof, which is modern, was originally hipped. Full hips tend to be 17th century in date, whereas half hips are an earlier form.

Unknown, 1949 - 1957, Yeo Farm (Photograph). SDV263838.

Photos of various buildings at Yeo including school, taken in 1949 (Gardner) and September 1957 (Anon). Plans of buildings also in National Monuments Record. Photographs and plans in National Monuments Record, London (photocopies taken by S. Timms). Other details: AA 49/9906 and BB69/889.

Mercer, E., 1975, English Vernacular Houses, 148 (Monograph). SDV336308.

Other details: Figure 22.

Laithwaite, J. M. W., 1988, Yeo Farm, Chagford, 13-14 (Un-published). SDV226613.

Seems rather grand for a service building and, as it fronts the former road through the settlement, may be regarded as a true cottage - presumably the one included in lesser Yeo Land Tax assessment of 1801.
Low, two storied building of granite rubble with the ruin of a stone pond in front of it with a bench built to each side. There is an added lean-to at the left end of the building. Internally the building is simple; with one large room on the ground floor with a large fireplace with a granite-lined oven in the left-hand side. The right jamb of the fireplace is built forward slightly to form a small room in the space to the right which was thought to have been a curing chamber but Laithwaite believes it to have been a living room with a matching chamber on the upper floor.
The roof may have originally have been hipped, which may indicate a date in the second half of the 17th century, as in Devon half hips are the earlier roof form.

Ordnance Survey, 2011, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV346129.

English Heritage, 2011, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV347072.

(Listing description December 1986) Disused school house, originally a detached kitchen or bakehouse. Late 16th-early 17th century. Granite stone rubble laid to rough courses and with large dressed quoins; disused granite stack; corrugated iron roof (formerly thatch).
Plan. Small single cell building facing south-south-west, say south. It has a large stack at the left (western) end with the remains of an associated curing chamber to rear and the site of a winder stair towards the front rising over the top of a large side oven. Secondary woodshed on left end. Main block is two storeys.
Exterior. Front has a doorway a little right of centre; its lintel and jambs made up of large slabs of dressed granite. Secondary porch in front has partly collapsed and lost its monopitch roof. It has rubble walls with stone benches along the inside. To right there is a stone window each floor. Both were two lights but are now missing their central mullions. To left of the doorway is a tiny slit window, provided to light the stair. A large millstone leans against the wall below. Roof is gable-ended. Rear wall has a 2-window front of blocked single light windows to the ground floor and a small 19th century fixed pane window with glazing bars to the first floor. The curing chamber has a slit window in each outer wall.
Interior. The roof structure was replaced in the late 19th-early 20th century but otherwise the original interior is well-preserved, if somewhat dilapidated. The crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with worn step stops. The large granite fireplace has a soffit- chamfered oak lintel. On the left side a segmental-headed doorway leads to a large stone-lined oven under the site of the winder stair. On the right side of the fireplace there is an archway through the cheek at hearth level through to the curing chamber the other side. It is now blocked. In the curing chamber this archway shows below a stone shelf. High above there is a plastered niche in the side of the stack which is thought to be where smoke from the curing chamber could join the main five. The Old School House is both attractive and most important. The fireplace with its associated oven and curing chamber show that this was a working building, a detached kitchen or bakehouse with accommodation or storage space above. Purpose-built buildings of this size and date are of national importance when they are this well- preserved. Great care should be taken to preserve the buildings integrity during any renovation work here. Furthermore it is one of a fine group of associated farm and mill buildings which include the farmhouse (q.v.), the office and garden railings (q.v.), mill (q.v.), smithy (kq.v.) and barn (q.v.). In the C19 the road was diverted south of the farm but before that used to run through the farmyard and therefore the Old School House would have fronted onto the road. The farm has been in the hands of the Perryman family since circa 1450. Source: E Mercer. English Vernacular Houses (1975) Fig. 22, p.148. Other details: LB UID: 94627.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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