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Summary

The ruins of a mid-16th century gatehouse and adjoining mid-19th century garden walls.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1098265: MOHUNS OTTERY GATEHOUSE AND FRONT GARDEN WALLS APPROXIMATELY 5 METRES SOUTH OF MOHUNS OTTERY FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• GATEHOUSE (XVI - 1512 AD to 1572 AD (Between))
• GARDEN WALL (XIX - 1825 AD to 1875 AD (Between))

Full description

Foster, K. + Skinner, R., 01/2016, A30 to A303 Honiton to Devonshire Inn Improvement Scheme, Honiton, Devon (Report - Assessment). SDV359378.

DBA undertaken along a corridor associated with the A30/A303 between Honiton and Devonshire Inn. This study is intended to inform the development of options for improvements to the A30/A303 between Honiton and Devonshire Inn.

A cluster of Listed Buildings and structures exists at Mohun’s Ottery and due to their close proximity are considered together. Mohun’s Ottery is a large farmhouse on the site of a medieval manor. The oldest part of the complex is the gatehouse which dates from the 16th century having been built by Sir Peter Carew and has separate Listing. The farmhouse and ciderhouse date from 1868 when the entire building was rebuilt following a fire. The farmhouse has a u-shaped plan and is in a Tudor Gothic style. It utilises local building methods being constructed with chert rubble with Beerstone ashlar details and contains some elements salvaged from the former 16th century house.

The farmhouse is set within a complex of farm buildings and gardens on a private lane in a prominent position on the west slopes of the Otter Valley (Plates 29 & 30). Included within this complex is the Grade II Listed cider-house which is built in chert rubble and dates mostly from the 19th century although it is partial re-built of the 16th-century manor. Beyond the farm buildings the farm’s setting comprises agricultural fields of pasture on slopes to the west of the River Otter.

The house derives its significance from its evidential (architectural value), its aesthetic value as an attractive high status farmhouse with decorative medieval elements (such as the gatehouse) and from its historical value as a surviving feature of the late-medieval landscape with links to notable local families. The farmhouse’s immediate setting amongst its gardens and farm buildings is its most important, the building having a functional link with the house and the gardens representing a secluded, intimate space from which to experience the house. The setting of fields around the farm is also important as it represents the farmhouse’s original, historic setting with a close functional link to the working of the farm.

The house has a prominent position in the Otter Valley overlooking parts of Monkton and Rawridge manors both of which have tenurial connections to the house’s historic occupants. As such the house’s wider setting encompasses a broad swath of the valley. The tranquil, rural character of this part of the valley reflects the house’s original historic setting and a number of vantage points from which the house can be viewed are located within it (Plate 30). The busy A30 passes the farm to the east and south-east but is largely screened from it by woodland, buildings and hedgerows. As such the house is unaffected by the road’s associated noise.

The ciderhouse is a part of the group of buildings intimately linked to the farm and has a very similar setting to the farmhouse with its functional associations with other farm buildings and the surrounding agricultural landscape being most important.

Any scheme that affects the fields to the east of Mohun’s Ottery within its Otter Valley setting would be considered to be within the farmhouse’s setting and that of the ciderhouse and would be likely to impact upon their significance. Such an impact may be reduced through the implementation of careful, sensitive design.

A scheme focussed on the existing A30 or development elsewhere within the Site would be unlikely to have any effect on the setting of Mohun’s Ottery. The Grade II* Listed gatehouse has a limited setting focussed on the farm complex that surrounds it and would be unaffected by development within the Site.

Thorpe, J., 2002, Mohun's Ottery Farm, BH040001 (Ground Photograph). SDV351381.

Thorp, J., 2002, Mohun's Ottery Farm, BH040021-BH040022 (Un-published). SDV351382.

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

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

Ruins of gatehouse and adjoining garden walls. The gatehouse is mid-16th century and built by Sir Peter Carew, the walls are probably mid-19th century (contemporary with the 1868 rebuild of the farmhouse). Local stone and flint rubble with Beerstone ashlar dressings and detail. Only the bottom stage remains of what must have been a 2 or 3-storey rectangular building on north-south axis. Each end (north and south) are carriageway arches. They are 4-centred arches with moulded surrounds and spandrels superbly carved with heraldic devices with Renaissance style foliage and putti and hoodmoulds. The front doorway is flanked by late 19th century cream-coloured brick buttresses. The side walls are blind although there is a patch of blocking on the west side which might represent a blocked doorway. A mass of masonry against the east wall may represent a stair. The gatehouse is roofless. The path from the gatehouse to the farmhouse is lined by mid-19th century low stone rubble walls and there is a mounting block on the outside of the west wall. From each side of the front of the gatehouse are similar garden boundary walls. This gatehouse was probably built by Sir Peter Carew (1512 - 75) who died on the Mary Rose.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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