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Summary

West Iddlecott farmhouse with late medieval origins. Former manor house.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS51SE/25/1
• Old Listed Building Ref (II)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Unknown, Architectural Features (Un-published). SDV338811.

Many walls have been 'squared up' by stud partitions. The original dairy has been converted to a bathroom suite. The breakfast room was added, probably circa 1850, as a single-storey thatched kitchen with scullery attached. A cloam oven and a cream oven survive in this room. A trap door over the rear entrance hall gives access to the Solar above. Other details: Planning application 1/0626/2007.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

'Iddlecott Manor House (remains of)' shown on 19th century map.

Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division, 1973, SS51SE4 (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Card). SDV338805.

A thatched cob structure not of special interest.

Department of Environment, 1988, Dolton, 39 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV598.

West Iddlecott. House, formerly farmhouse. Possibly late medieval origins but the building cannot be precisely dated earlier than late 16th century with 17th century additions. Rendered rubble and cob walls. Gable-ended thatch roof. 2 brick stacks - 1 axial and one at right gable-end on projecting rendered rubble base. Plan: originally 3-room-and-through-passage plan, lower end to the left has been demolished and rebuilt as an outbuilding. The hall stack backs onto the passage. There is a large inner room heated by a gable-end stack which may have been extended in the early 17th century coinciding possibly with the addition of a rear wing behind the hall which seems to have been unheated. An early 20th century leanto was added against its left-hand side. It is possible that the building originated as an open hall house but this could not be proved without an inspection of the roof-space for smoke-blackening which was not possible at the time of the survey; there is evidence, however, of an early roof structure. Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window front of 12-pane later 19th century sashes apart from an early 19th century one on the ground floor and a contemporary 20 pane sash on the 1st floor to the right. Above the 1st floor windows are gable with decorative 19th century bargeboards. 19th century 6 panelled door to right of centre behind latticed wooden porch with similar bargeboard. Doorway to passage at left-hand end with lower outbuilding beyond it. Rear wing, set back from right-hand end has early 19th century horizontal sliding 8-pane sashes and an 18th century square section 2-light mullion on the outer face. 20th century leanto porch in angle between wing and main range. Interior: passage has small chamfered square-headed wooden doorframe at its lower side. Heading into the hall from it is an early to mid 17th century ovolo-moulded wooden doorframe. Hall has fireplace with chamfered wooden lintel and chamfered ceiling beams. Inner room has plank and muntin screen, probably 16th century and possibly reused, which has chamfered unstopped muntins and mason's mitres to the headbeam. At rear of hall is peaked head chamfered wooden doorframe to wing which also chamfered ceiling beams. Roof structures: over main range consists of substantial principal rafters, the feet of which are not visible, with threaded purlins and a morticed collar. Roof space not accessible at time of inspection so it was impossible to check for smoke-blackening but this may well exist Other details: LBS Number: 90852.

Child, P. C., 1997, West Iddlecott, Dolton (Un-published). SDV348074.

Visited on 22nd July 1997. Substantial three room and cross passage house with a 17th century rear wing. Main range is smoke blackened above the hall and inner room. Lower end roof removed some years ago, but the ground floor cross beams survive with stepped stops. Lower end is very large (circa 30 feet long), but no evidence of a fireplace, and access to it is through a remarkably small door from the cross passage. This door is chamfered and clearly of antiquity, but contrasts in its size with the large ovolo-moulded door which led from the cross passage originally into the hall. There is a large blocked door in the centre of the north wall of the lower end, which presumably was the principal access to this section, although rebuilding has taken place in some of the walls, which may have concealed other openings. The lack of fireplace may place West Iddlecott into the "quasi-longhouse" category identified by Thorp in North Devon, with the lower end remaining in agricultural use until it became decrepit. The 'old' kitchen lies in a section of building which infills between the 17th century wing and the main range. This is again a curious place to find a kitchen, and would seem to indicate that the lower end was in some other use. The smoke blackening of the hall range is thicker towards the cross passage. Between the hall and inner room is a solid wall, but projecting from its top within the roof space is a smoke-blackened post. This has been identified as a gavel-fork, but it is a simple vertical piece of timber and I think it more likely that it represents the last fragment of a timber framed partition between the hall and inner room which was replaced by the solid wall. Immediately above this wall has been inserted an early 19th century staircase with two extrememly rustic turned balusters. This is flanked on its upper side by a stud and panel screen which sits uncomfortably in this position and is likely to have been moved from elsewhere. The roof over the hall and inner room is composed of substantial jointed crucks with cambered collars and a threaded ridge. The joints are orthodox. The westerly truss now forms a gable to the building over the cross passage, and presumably this roof originally extended to the full length of the lower end. The roof over the rear wing has another jointed cruck truss (and possibly a second beyond the dividing wall), but this is not smoke-blackened and has a notched halved joint for the collar. This would seem clearly to indicate that the wing is 17th century in date. When the house was Georgianised the front wall was raised to accommodate large sash windows and a secondary roof was built over the front of the medieval roof although not over its back. The strutting of this secondary roof impinges into the first floor rooms. In the east gable wall adjacent to the fireplace is buried a three light square-sectioned unglazed mullioned window which appears to be truncated to the north. The beam stops in the inner room are most peculiar and I am unable to describe them. The inner fireplace which is in a rebuilt gable has a granite lintel and one granite jamb. The stops to the hall beams are scroll stops. The stops to the lower end are step stops. West Iddlecott is a substantial traditional Devon three room and cross passage house, probably of a quasi longhouse type. It has a large (two room deep) rear wing added in the 17th century. The hall and inner room were clearly originally open to the roof, with two separate hearths. Smoke-blackened thatch survives. The front was given a more genteel appearance in the 18th century by the insertion of sash windows which necessitated raising the wall and constructing gable dormers with barge boards under the thatch, while a staircase was inserted between the inner room and the hall. A kitchen was added in the angle between the wing and the hall perhaps in the 18th century.

Taylor, A., 2007, Aller Road, Dolton: An Archaeological Evaluation, 2 (Report - Evaluation). SDV340085.

Torridge District Council, 2007, Reinstatement of Former West End of Farmhouse to Form 2 Storey Granny Flat (Planning Application). SDV338814.

Parker, R., 2007, West Iddlecott Farmhouse, Dolton. Appraisal in Advance of Alterations (Report - Assessment). SDV339226.

West Iddlecott farmhouse is L-shaped consisting of a long house with an unconverted shippon. The three room and cross passage type plan consists of a shippon, cross passage, hall and parlour. The loft over the shippon had been demolished. Development proposals in 2007 involved the reinstatement of the upper storey of the shippon and conversion of the lower part to residential use. Carpentry detail of the main roof of the house suggest it was constructed in the late 15th or early 16th century with the integral shippon. The shippon had a central arched doorway and a wide entrance from the passage. In the late 16th or 17th century the house was altered nad a cross wing was constructed to the north. At a later date the floor and a large chimney were inserted into the hall and the door to the shippon from the cross passage was blocked. 18th or 19th alterations included a new enrtrance lobby, staircase, large sash windows and a scullery/dairy. In the 20th century the upper part of the shippon was demolished and the house became separated from the farm.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4365 - Evaluation at Aller Road, Dolton

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