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Summary

Former farmhouse which dendrochonological analysis has suggested was initially built in the late 14th century and remodelled in the mid to late 17th century.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1325878: POOL HOUSE

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (XIV to XVII - 1301 AD (Between) to 1700 AD (Between)) + Sci.Date

Full description

Unattributed, Pool Farm, BH133001 (Ground Photograph). SDV351886.

Unattributed, Pool Farm, BH133007, BH133021-BH133022 (Un-published). SDV351887.

Devon and Somerset County Councils, 2000-2002, Historic Farmsteads Database, BH133H (Machine readable data file). SDV349681.

No information supplied.

Tyers, C + Hurford, M. + Arnold, A. + Howard, R.E. + Thorp, J., 2009, Dendrochronological Research in Devon: Phase II, 5-6, building description, photos (Report - Interim). SDV348234.

The house appears to date to the early 15th century and to have originated as a two room and cross passage plan house, probably with a solar at the lower end. The house was considerably rebuilt in the mid 17th century; it was extended to the south and became two storey throughout. At the north end was a parlour with a fireplace in a lateral stack backing onto a wide cross passage. At the southern end is a kitchen with a fireplace in the gable end wall. It is suggested that part of the kitchen was screened off to create a service room against the cross passage; such central service rooms were a development of the second half of the 17th century. A blocked hatch at first floor level in the parlour stack possibly indicates a meat-smoking chamber.
The two southern roof bays date from the 17th century; the trusses bear original carpenter’s assembly marks in the form of chiseled Roman numerals.
The results of a dendrochronological analysis undertaken on timbers in the house suggest a construction date for the south-western half of the house shortly after the proposed felling dated of the winter 1366/7-summer 1367 and the mid to late 17th century for the north-eastern part of the house. These dates are earlier and later than the expected dates of c.1400 and c.1500 respectively.

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

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

Pool House. Detached house, formerly a farmhouse. Probably late 15th century or early 16th century, completely remodelled in the 17th century with later alterations. Roughcast cob and stone; gable end pantiled roof.
Plan: The medieval house was almost certainly a 3-room, through-passage plan house; the medieval roof of jointed cruck construction survives; the hall and passage (occupying 2 bays) were originally open to the roof, and the timbers here are smoke- blackened; the service end (probably of 2 bays) and the inner room (originally probably of one) were either of 2 storeys or unheated (or both). The cruck trusses over the hall are of a different construction from the others; with chamfered arched braces, and this probably reflects the greater importance of the room, rather than different builds. The hall and passage are divided from the service end by a plaster and wattle partition that rises through the entire height, closing the truss into which it is attached, which - unusually - is a collar rafter truss (not a jointed cruck), and which is smoke-blackened (like the infill) to the hall side only. Unlike most cases where later generations respected the tradition of the 3-room, through passage plan, the 17th century owners of Pool appear to have imposed a 2-room, through-passage plan on the existing structure. Presumably for reasons of structural stability the hall stack was inserted adjacent to the central jointed cruck truss of the hall, and backing onto an exceptionally wide passage, the lower end side of which corresponds to the closed truss described above. Part of the old hall and an extended inner room form a single room to the left, with a long service end to the right. At the same time an unheated wing was added to the rear of the service end, and a barn set forward of the house but connected to the gable end of the left-hand room. Axial stack, and internal service-end (right-hand) end stack. 2 storeys.
Exterior Front: 4 window range, 2 and 3 light casement windows to first floor, 2 and 3 light casement windows to ground floor, 19th century and later left hand end with no windows and brick gable wall. 20th century lean-to attached to right hand end.
Rear: 2 and 3 light casement windows, largely 19th century but in the case of the rear wing end ground floor 2-light window occupying a 17th century embrasure which retains its cyma recta moulded lintel (visible internally). The service-end windows (3-light casement to first floor, 4-light to ground) are possibly set in early embrasures.
Interior: Left hand room, axial ceiling beam, chamfered with eroded stops and a sort of keystone carved in the timber at its centre. Fireplace of random rubble with chamfered timber lintel with eroded stops. Right- hand room with 3 cross ceiling beams, all chamfered with hollow step stops, one resting on a post.
Rear wing: roughly chamfered cross ceiling beam; rear window lintel as described above.
Roof: 3 hall trusses, with yoke, and chamfered arched braces, the lower blades of the arch brace cut out of the same timber as the lower blade of the truss, the upper ones morticed. Diagonal ridge piece throughout; cranked collars. The central truss to the former hall has lost its lower rear blade which rests now on a turned debased Ionic column, visible in the present bathroom, and inserted in the 17th century.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV5623 - Dendrochronological Research in Devon, Phase II

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