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Summary

House, former farmhouse. 16th century with 17th century improvements, refurbished and rearranged in late 18th - early 19th century, modernised circa 1900. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, parts are stone rubble; stone rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th century brick; slate roof over thatch.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1326078: WALLON HOUSE INCLUDING GARDEN WALLS ADJOINING TO SOUTH-WEST

Other References/Statuses

• National Buildings Record: 88546
• National Monuments Record: SX79SW30
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 546261
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX79SE/48
• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 94867

Monument Type(s) and Dates

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

Full description

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

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

6/71 Wallon House including garden walls adjoining to south-west, GV II
House, former farmhouse. C16 with C17 improvements, refurbished and rearranged in late C18 - early C19, modernised circa 1900. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, parts are stone rubble; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; slate roof over thatch. Plan and development: L-shaped building. The main block faces south-east and is built down the hillslope. It has a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. Uphill at the left (south-west) end is an unheated inner room, formerly a dairy. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. The 2 service end rooms are separated by an axial stack. Late C19 or C20 rear block projecting at right angles to rear of left end. The main house has a long and complex structural history. It was originally built in the early or mid C16 as an open hall house probably heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room chamber was erected in the mid or late C16 and it jetties into the upper end of the hall. The hall fireplace and upper floor were inserted in the early C17. The whole house was raised and reroofed in the late C17 - early C18. The service end was rearranged in the late C18 - early C19 at which time the main entrance was moved to the right end room. Now 2 storeys throughout. Exterior: irregular 5-window front of mostly late C19 and C20 glazing bars, most with glazing bars. The 3-light casement over the passage front doorway has an unusual folding casement. The window to right of the same doorway has been replaced by a C20 french window. The 12-pane sash above has fat glazing bars and may be C18. To right of it is a late C18 - early C19 16-pane sash. The passage front doorway is left of centre and contains a 4-panel door. The right end doorway contains a 6- panel door behind an early C20 porch with a first floor room over. Roof is hipped each end. Interior: the inner room and hall contain the oldest features. The oak plank-and- muntin screen has chamfered muntins with step stops high enough to accommodate a bench below. The planks have been removed. The hall fireplace is granite ashlar with an oak lintel which is ogee-moulded with the same stops. One early roof truss remains boxed into the partition between hall and inner room chambers. The rest is made up of late C17-early C18. A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. Most of the joinery detail is C19 and C20 but there are a couple of possibly C18 fielded panel doors.

Steinmetzer, M., 2014, Archaeological monitoring at Wallon, Drewsteignton, Devon, 3 (Report - Watching Brief). SDV359920.

Watching brief during complete refurbishment of the house, which included the removal of the concrete floors in the hall, cross-passage, parlour and kitchen. Cobbled floors were revealed in the parlour and kitchen. No evidence of earlier flooring survived in the cross-passage and hall due to modern truncation associated with the insertion of concrete floors.
In the parlour, although no evidence of a fireplace was observed in the north wall by Keystone in 2013, a fine layer of ash covered the cobbled surface immediately in front and to the east of the low cupboard.
Work in the kitchen uncovered the remains of a northwest-southeast aligned wall foundation approximately 3.25 metres long and 0.5 metres wide, consisting of limestone rubble, laid in rough courses. No bricks or re-used building stone identified. The wall represents a later insertion or alteration; constructed at the same time as the major early 18th century refurbishment and extension to Wallon House (addition of the parlour and service kitchen).

Thorpe, J., April 2013, Wallon, Drewsteignton, Devon (Report - Survey). SDV352677.

The historic core of the farmhouse comprises the east-west block which faces south onto the farmyard and a rear wing projecting north at the west end. The present buildings to the rear are modern, dating to the 2nd half of the 20th century. The main block has a four-room and cross passage plan. The large room on the west side of the passage was two rooms before the remains of a 17th century partition screen were removed in the late 20th century. The hall/dining room has an axial chimneystack backing onto the cross passage.
The former inner room, from which a stair rises, was unheated. On the east side of the cross passage is a generously sized room with two smaller rooms, now joined together at the east end. There is a rear lateral stack at the east end. The rear block comprises a large kitchen with a fireplace in the north end with a narrow unheated service block beyond which now largely serves as a corridor between the kitchen and the 20th century cottage extension. A door way in the east wall of the kitchen leads to a stair in a projecting turret. The upper floors generally follow the ground floor pattern.
The layout of the oldest rooms and the decorative finishes to the beams and fireplace lintels suggest a 17th century date for the building of Wallon, perhaps replacing an earlier longhouse. Humfry Coldridge of Wallon (died 1647) or his son, Humphrey (died 1669) may have been responsible the rebuilding. Such a major rebuilding implies a family and their house on the social rise. The west end of the main block has some of the earliest fabric in the house suggesting a three room and cross passage plan with the uphill formerly two room end falling into the pattern of a traditional late medieval farmhouse. The creation of a rear kitchen block, rather than the conversion of the lower end, is a common feature of Dartmoor longhouses. The higher status of the western end is shown but the back of the hall chimneystack just inside the front doorway which is a showpiece of coursed granite ashlar with a chamfered plinth and cornice. The fireplace in the hall/dining room has monolithic granite jambs and a large oak lintel. It is scarred with burn marks which, it is suggested, were made deliberately with a red-hot poker as sympathetic magic, as insurance against fire. In the south-east corner of the fireplace is a cloam oven inserted in the 18th or 19th century. The kitchen wing appears to be contemporary with the main block. It has a massive fireplace in the north wall with two 18th or 19th century ovens, one of which is probably a rebuilding of the 17th century original. The top of the 17th century roof truss between the main block and kitchen range is visible in the roof space. It is an example of a closed roof truss, infilled with wattle and daub.
The house underwent a major refurbishment in the early 18th century. The former service end to the east of the cross passage was rebuilt creating a new parlour and chamber above heated by fireplaces in a new east end chimneystack (which was removed in the 20th century). The first floor at the west end was also rebuilt and a new roof structure erected over the whole of the main block. The eastern end of the main block was extended in the 19th century and a new staircase created in the north-east corner.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6298 - Historic Building Assessment of Wallon, Drewsteignton
• EDV7146 - Archaeological monitoring at Wallon, Drewsteignton (Ref: OA1163)

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