See important guidance on the use of this record.

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

Summary

Apart from the main house this is the only building to survive from Monk's period. Given its size and character it is almost certainly the stable for 40 horses listed in the 18c Rolle account.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS51SW/1/6

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• STABLE (Post Medieval to XXI - 1540 AD to 2009 AD (Between))

Full description

Lysons, D. + Lysons, S., 1822, Magna Britannica, 338 (Monograph). SDV323771.

White, W., 1850/1968, White's Devon. History, Gazetteer and Directory of Devonshire, 771 (Monograph). SDV6497.

Pye, A. + Westcott, K., 1993, Great Potheridge Farm, Merton. An Archaeological Presentation Survey, 19 (Report - non-specific). SDV11287.

The great stable. Apart from the main house this is the only building to survive from Monk's period. Given its size and character it is almost certainly the stable for 40 horses listed in the 18c Rolle account. These 'magnificent' stables were still standing in 1822 (see Lysons) and 1850 (see White), and the present building is the only one to appear on all estate plans from c.1779. In the 1871 valuation the area including it was described as a curtilage with sheds, stables and a barn.
The building is aligned N-S and sited in the farmyard E of the main house, and is built of the same coursed rubble. The masonry is of particularly high quality on the outside of the E + W elevations and a short length of moulded string-course survives within the granary. This has the same profile as that around the main house, and occurs above first-floor level, implying that there was originally a second floor which has since been removed. The present roof is 20c, replacing one which was burnt down in the 1930's. The building has been much altered since its construction and some details of its original plan and subsequent development are still not clear. In its earliest phase it consisted of a 3-storey rectangular building with 2 wings projecting from its E side. Of these the N is the larger, and may have had an entrance at its SE corner. Little of the S wing survives apart from its s wall. Later the are between the wings was enclosed and used for stables (presumably those listed in the 1871 valuation), including the S wing which was blocked off from the main range. Wooden stalls still remain in the S wing whilst the central section is now used for cattle. This extension probably occurred in the early 19c.
Originally the main range contained a tall gateway (now blocked) towards the centre of the W wall; this is visible on the inside of the building just to the N of the present gateway. In the E wall opposite there is a shorter blocked double doorway. This is not visible in the E face of this wall, where it has been covered over by the high-quality masonry which elsewhere dates to the restoration. This indicates that monk's great stables were on the site of an existing building, perhaps a barn or earlier stables.
At first floor level there is a series of tall openings in the W wall, 3 to the n of the original gateway and 2 to the S. Most have been blocked at various times or utilised for later windows and doors. Some may have been windows, others may have provided access to the first floor via external stairs. There are no openings in the opposite wall except a first-floor doorway at its N end which would have been reached by an external stair, or in the section of second-floor wall which survives in the later granary. The remainder of the openings are secondary and date to the conversion of the building to a threshing barn in the 18c or 19c and the construction of new stables between its wings. The threshing and winnowing would have been carried out opposite the original doorway until the installation of a mechanical thresher and construction of a horse-engine house between 1841 and 1866. Corn would probably have been unloaded from wagons at the present first-floor entrance, then fed through a thresher powered via a drive-shaft entering through one of the earlier openings. At ground floor level the straw was probably stored at the S end and brought out by wagons through the present gateway (the older one having been blocked by the construction of the horse-engine house), as the grain brought out through the gates in the N wall. It was presumably stored in the N end of the barn or in a separate granary on a different site from the present one, which was only built in the early 20c.
Above first-floor level a small section of wall survives as the W wall of the granary, and blocked joist sockets and an internal offset are visible high up in the E wall. The second floor therefore seems to have been removed after the construction of the granary, which occurred shortly after 1904. Currently the S end of the main range is used as a cattle shed, and machinery is stored in the N end. The present first-floor loft is supported on RSJs and presumably post-dates the 1930's fire. Other details: Figs 15,16; pl 20,21.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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