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Summary

Powlesland appears in many early documents. It has origins in the 14th century but was largely rebuilt in the 16th and 17th century.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1106059: POWLESLAND FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX69NE/26
• Old Listed Building Ref (II*)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (XIV to XVII - 1301 AD (Between) to 1700 AD (Between))

Full description

DOE 1960, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV251610.

Rubble and cob with thatched roof. End brick stacks and large granite lateral chimney. Two storeys. Open fireplaces. Plank and muntin partition in hall. Wood stairs with solid steps.16th century and earlier. Much altered and mutilated comparatively recently (doe 1960).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV251613.

Lega-weekes, e. /tda/34(1902)578-467/the neighbours of north wyke. Part ii.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV251614.

Alcock, n. W. /cruck construction(cba res rep 42)/(1981)111.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV251615.

Doe/hhr:okehampton rd/(-/2/1960)28.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV251616.

Gover, j. E. B. + mawer, a. + stenton, f. M. /the place-names of devon/(1931)449.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV251617.

Doe/hhr:south tawton/(4/3/1988)120.

Department of Environment, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV327144.

Powlesland farmhouse, former dartmoor longhouse-type. Early c16 with major later c16 and c17 modernizations. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; granite stacks, the hall one with a tall granite ashlar chimneystack, the hall one with a tall granite ashlar chimneyshaft; thatch roof, shippon/stable end replaced with corrugated iron. T-plan house. The main block faces se and is built down a very gentle slope. It has a 3 room and through passage plan. Two storeys. A c20 outshot on right end. House part has regular but far from symmetrical 3 window front of c20 casements with glazing bars, those on the first floor are gabled half dormers. Oak plank and muntin screen. Large hall fireplace of granite ashlar with a hollow-chamfered surround. Cream oven to upper end cob crosswall. Mid c17 straight flight stair. Roof is gable-ended. Original roof over passage and hall. Roof over inner room parlour inaccessible. Evidence of smoke-blackening. Other roof structural features. See doe list for full details (doe).

Alcock, N. W., Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV57461.

Jointed crucks recorded (alcock).

Reichel, O. J., 1902, The Devonshire Domesday (Article in Serial). SDV22298.

Powlesland appears in many early documents. It has a door of 14th century type. Mullioned windows. Passage with oak partition. An adjacent old cottage has a 13th century door. A room in powlesland possesses an open fire-place of cob, flue in wall, and recess to left where ladder probably ascended to upper floor. Of this, two extraordinarily massive beams remain at level of head. The house is thatched (lega-weekes).

Gover, J. E. B. + Mawer, A. + Stenton, F. M., 1931, The Place-Names of Devon: Part One (Monograph). SDV1312.

Documented in 1244 and 1333 (mawer et al).

Parker, R., 2016, Powlesland Farmhouse, Powlesland Land, South Tawton, Devon: Historic Building Recording & Interpretation (Report - Survey). SDV364353.

The survey was undertaken to inform a planning application for the restoration and repair of the shippon (cow house) at the south western end of the farmhouse. The shippon is currently in ruinous condition and is divided by a modern wall into a store and a garage. The proposed repairs would involve the reinstatement of the loft floor, which has partially collapsed, the consolidation of the walls and the repair of the roof. The restored building would be utilised as a farm office and library, with welfare facilities for farm workers.

The house is clearly of medieval origin, perhaps dating from as early as the 14th century, but was much rebuilt in the 16th and 17th centuries. The house is remarkable in particular for the 17th century alterations, including the flooring over of the hall which, most unusually, can be very closely dated by documentary evidence to the 1640s. Later modifications to the house seem to have been concentrated in the second half o f the 17th century and involved successive improvements to the north eastern end of the house by the addition of chimneys, the flooring over of rooms and the addition of extensions in a number of interventions which a seem to have been closely spaced in ti me and are thus rather difficult to untangle. The suggested development

The original medieval house was a long rectangular building open from end to end and divided by low timber screens into three separate areas. At the south western end was the shippon entered by opposed doorways at its north eastern end. The hall was heated by a central hearth and lit by ung lazed windows with narrow ogee headed lights defined by timber mullions . It had a high, open timber roof supported on a single jointed cruck truss at the centre of the hall, which retains today its medieval, smoke blackened thatch in quite remarkably good condition.

To the north of the house, a small detached building of stone, with a remarkable arched timber doorway, has the appearance and character of a detached chapel like that surviving at Bury Barton, Lapford, though this con jecture could only be confirmed by further examination of the ruins and, perhaps, through documentary research.

Historic England, 2024, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV365835.

Former Dartmoor longhouse-type. Early 16th with major later 16th and 17th modernisations. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; granite stacks, the hall one with a tall granite ashlar chimneystack, the hall one with a tall granite ashlar chimneyshaft; thatch roof, shippon/stable end replaced with corrugated iron. Plan and development: T-plan house. The main block faces south-east and is built down a very gentle hillslope. It has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. Uphill at the right (north-eastern) end is an inner room parlour with a disused gable-end stack and mid 17th century stair rising to rear. The hall has a front lateral stack. It projects forward from the passage and shippon section but the hall window and inner room are brought forward flush with the front of the stack. There was once a winder stair rising from the hall, to rear lower end. Shippon end still in agricultural use and has hayloft over. Unheated dairy block projecting at right angles to rear of hall and inner room with integral outshot on hall side. The roof shows that the early 16th century house was open to the roof, divided by low partitions (at least to the passage), and heated by an open hearth fire. Maybe the inner room was floored from the beginning. If not it was in the mid 16th century. In the mid 17th century, maybe in more than one of the closely-spaced building phases, the house was thoroughly refurbished. The house only superficially altered since then.

Good interior: on the lower (shippon/stables) side of the passage a soffit- Chamfered and step-stopped beam is half-buried in the crosswall. The hall-passage partition is late 16th century; an oak plank-and-muntin screen with raking step stops. At the same time the passage chamber was jettied into the hall with an oak close- studded first floor crosswall. The large hall fireplace is granite ashlar with a hollow-chamfered surround. There is a tiny fire window in the left side, now to the bay window. The upper end cob crosswall includes a cream oven above an ancient oak bench. The mid 17th century axial beam is soffit-chamfered with exaggerated scroll stops. Mid 17th century oak doorframe from hall to inner room parlour is ovolo-moulded with bar-roll stops. Inner room fireplace is blocked and ceiling of plain joists. Mid 17th century straight flight stair hidden from the room by an oak plank-and-muntin screen, its muntins ovolo-moulded with bar-roll stops (same surround to doorways off its landing). . Several old plank doors throughout the house, two of the earliest held together by projecting oak pegs. The stable/shippon has a plain soffit- chamfered crossbeam, probably late 17th-early 18th century and the same date as the A-frame roof with pegged lapped-jointed collar over the hayloft. Original roof over passage and hall carried on large side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars, and this section is smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. Roof over inner room parlour inaccessible. Roof over dairy carried on a side-pegged jointed cruck. Powlesland is an attractive late medieval farmhouse with good 16th and 17th century features. Lega-Weekes recorded the mouldings from some of the 17th century oak-mullioned windows before their removal and sketched a shoulder-headed oak doorframe here. It is still occupied by the Powlesland family.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV9076 - Historic Building Recording & Interpretation: Powlesland Farmhouse, Powlesland Land, South Tawton, Devon (Ref: 2016.01)

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