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Summary

Small former farmhouse. Early 16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements, modernised circa 1981

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1098081: FORDTON FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SY09NW/64
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*): 86974

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (XVI to XVII - 1501 AD to 1700 AD (Between))

Full description

NMR, CITING DOE, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV129453.

Fondton farmhouse. Early 16c with major later 16c and 17c improvements, modernised ca.1981. Three-room-and-through-passage plan. Grade ii* (nmr, citing doe).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV129454.

Nmr=sy09nw10.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV129455.

Doe/hhr:whimple/(-/10/1988?).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV129456.

Cherry, b. + pevsner, n. /the buildings of england: devon/(1989).

Fisher, J., 1999, East Devon Conservation Area Appraisals: Whimple, 6 (Report - non-specific). SDV347093.

English Heritage, 2011, Historic Houses Register (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV346128.

Small former farmhouse. Early 16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements, modernised circa 1981. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble and cob stacks topped with 19th century brick; thatch roof.
Plan and development: three-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-south- east, say south. At the right (east) end is an inner room parlour with a projecting gable-end stack. Next to it is the hall with a projecting front lateral stack. At the left (west) end is a narrow unheated service end room, now used as a kitchen. The original house was essentially the same size and had the same plan as the present house but it was then open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partition screens and heated by an open hearth fire. Probably around the mid 16th century the inner room was floored with the chamber jettying into the open hall. It is not clear when the lower end was floored over but presumably there was a chamber there by the circa 1600. According to the detail of the hall fireplace the hall stack was inserted in the early - mid 17th century and the hall was floored over about the same time or maybe a little later. In the late 17th century the inner room end was rebuilt as a parlour with master chamber over and given a new stack. The winder stair in the hall probably dates from the same time. The rear outshots include a mid - later 17th century bakehouse with the remains of the stack. House is two storeys with secondary outshots to rear. Exterior: irregular three-window front of circa 1981 uPVC casements with leaded diamond pane effect. The passage front doorway is left of centre and it contains a late 19th century six-panel door behind a contemporary gabled porch with wavy bargeboards and trellis sides. The main roof is half-hipped to right and gable-ended to right.
Good interior: no carpentry detail is exposed in the present kitchen/former service end room and the lower side passage screen is 20th century and made up from pieces of old timber. The upper passage screen however is probably an original low partition screen; an oak plank-and-muntin screen with an unusual sequence of carpenter's assembly marks. It is much restored and the planks have been removed. In the former hall, at the upper end, there is another oak plank-and-muntin screen. Its muntins are chamfered with cut diagonal stops high enough to accommodate a bench below. This screen is probably mid 16th century and associated with the flooring over of the inner room; the screen includes two doorways and the left one (blocked with boards in the late 17th century) was presumably a stair door. The hall fireplace is stone rubble, much patched with 19th century brick, and its oak lintel is ovolo-moulded with scroll stops. The hall crossbeam has double ovolo-mouldings with runout stops. The oak-framed winder stair is probably late 17th century. The features of the inner room parlour end are all late 17th century. The parlour axial beam is roughly chamfered. The fireplace is limestone with curving brick pentan (back) and plain oak lintel. Alongside to right is a cupboard with fielded panel doors. In the chamber above a small fireplace maybe original. Alongside to right is a blocked late 17th century window; two-lights with flat-faced mullion. The doorway contains a two-fielded panel door. A plank door in the service end is hung on mid 17th century ornamental wrought iron strap hinges. The roof is mostly original. It is two long bays with a central side-pegged jointed cruck truss of large scantling. There is a hip cruck at the service end. There is a mortise at the inner end of the ridge for another hip cruck but the roof this end was altered when the end stack was built. Another side-pegged jointed cruck was erected there. This late 17th century truss is clean but the rest of the structure including a complete set of common rafters, battens and the underside of the thatch at the front are heavily smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. Fordton is a very well preserved and an unusually small example of a late medieval farmhouse. The AFU record (see below) was made before tne 1981 modernisation and then there was a couple of interesting features which no longer remain. There was a plank door to the cupboard under the hall stair which was inscribed RN 1745. More interesting was an original oak window in the back wall of the hall which was blocked by the hall first floor structure. It had survived virtually intact. It was unglazed, four lights with chamfered mullions and trefoil heads cut into the headbeam. A two-tier effect was made by a board with trefoil heads applied across the inside face. Source: Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit archive record dated June 1981 by John R.L. Thorp includes measured ground plan, long elevation and details.

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

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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