See important guidance on the use of this record.

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

Summary

Late 16th century farmhouse with 17th century wing, cob on stone walls and thatched roof. An unusually complete and unaltered example of an early Devon farmhouse.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1384739: GOTHAM FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS91SW/49
• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 485197

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1750 AD)

Full description

Department of Environment, 1972, Tiverton, 3 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV52494.

Late 16th century (deeds refer 1573), with alterations and additions, cob on stone walls. Two storey, part with attic, five window front, various casements including some leaded. Thatched roof with hump ridge. Interior: deep fireplace, massive beams, and stopped wide chamfered beams, wide boarded doors with strap hinges, exposed timber framing at first floor..

Adams, A., 2010, Sgraffito - Decorated and Painted Plaster on Devon Fireplaces, 4; Fig 13 (Report - non-specific). SDV354436.

Refers to sgraffito-deorated fireplace at 'Gotham', but does not specify whether Gotham House or Gotham Farmhouse.

Ordnance Survey, 2012, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV348725.

English Heritage, 2012, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV348729.

Farmhouse. Late C16 (deeds refer 1573). Rendered cob walls; mostly water reed thatched roof following the slope of the land and humped in the centre; brick end stacks, the left-hand stack external and rear lateral stack.
Plan: three-room and cross-passage plan plus 17th century wing at right angles to rear of passage/stair hall and lean-to in the angle right of wing. Original hall position uncertain but the lower end has smoke-blackened rafters above a 17th century roof structure.
Exterior: two storeys (since the 17th century); irregular five-window range built on a slope down to the right. Windows are mostly 17th century with two, three, four and five lights with chamfered timber mullions and various casements, some wooden, some iron, most with glazing bars, the first-floor windows breaking the eaves. The central presumed hall has a five-light window, and the presumed parlour, set back on the left, has a four-light window. There are two wide doorways, both low and with planked doors. The door left of the hall window is probably late 19th century with V-jointed boards, but the other door, towards the right, is very old in an old frame. The rear doorway opposite this has a 17th century frame and there is a rare 17th century two-light window with saddle bars and leaded glazing to first floor rear gable end of wing.
Interior: retains a wealth of original or old features including: original smoke-blackened rafters to lower end; 17th century roof structure with lapped and dovetailed collars; 17th century chamfered ceiling crossbeams, and axial beam to hall, the parlour ceiling with original joists visible; some studwork of partitions visible to lower end between rooms and rising to divide the roof space; 17th century moulded planked door to chamber of wing; 17th century hall fireplace blocked, 17th century parlour fireplace partly blocked; 18th century fireplace at lower end with brick-lined oven behind left-hand jamb and with iron door. Curious dressed stone arched opening to back of hall fireplace (possibly a small fireplace to serve the lean-to room or alternatively an oven designed to be accessed from the rear of the fireplace); 19th century dog-leg staircase with winders left of hall and straight-flight staircase at rear of lower end. Gotham is an unusually complete and unaltered example of an early Devon farmhouse and is also a building with considerable character.

Marlow, P. O., 2013, Cobbles in Devon, 58, Fig. 18 (Article in Serial). SDV358513.

The farmyard is cobbled as are the floors of the four farm buildings.

Historic England, 2015, Gotham Farmhouse (Correspondence). SDV358554.

Application received to amend the entry.

Historic England, 2015, Gotham Farmhouse, Bakers Hill, Tiverton (Correspondence). SDV358882.

An application has been received to consider the Grade II listed Gotham Farmhouse for upgrading. Consultation report attached.

Historic England, 2015, Gotham Farmhouse, Bakers Hill, Tiverton (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV359228.

Historic England has been asked to assess Gotham Farmhouse, Tiverton, for upgrading.
Gotham Farmhouse was listed at Grade II in 1952. It was re-assessed in 1995 during the listing resurvey andrecommended for amendment but the List entry was not updated. Although the house is not under any specific threat, the application for upgrading has been prompted by proposals by Mid Devon District Council that the land to the east and south of the house to be included in the Local Plan as a contingency site for housing development. In addition, work by the owner has revealed further features within the building which were not known about at the time of listing.
Gotham Farmhouse was listed in 1952 in recognition of its special architectural and historic interest. It is
described in the current List entry, which provides a detailed and comprehensive account of the building, as ‘an unusually complete and unaltered example of an early Devon farmhouse’, and it has been sensitively repaired by the current owner. Since it was listed, works to the house including the opening-up of several fireplaces have provided more evidence for the historical development of the building and the extent and quality of its interior fittings. There can be no question that the building justifies statutory protection, according to the criteria set out in the Principles of Selection, and this assessment considers whether it merits upgrading. Gotham Farmhouse can confidently be described as an important building by virtue of its legible and evolved plan and as an interesting example of a multi-phase Devon longhouse dating probably from the early C16. For a building of this date it has inevitably undergone some alteration but these have not impacted greatly on its special interest. Indeed some, such as the conversion of the shippon to domestic accommodation, contribute to an understanding of the building's evolution and adaptation and add to its interest.
While the building is not a completely intact house of the early C16 there is a high proportion of early
surviving features including windows, fireplaces, doors and doorcases, and ceiling beams; many dating from the early C17 when the house underwent updating and remodelling. There are several notable and unusual internal features that are not described in the current List entry and which add to the building’s claims to being of more than special architectural and historic interest. The mid-C17 sgraffito decoration to the parlour fireplace, for example, is a very rare survival of a once common decorative technique. The volcanic stone fireplace in the former hall, though not an uncommon material in the area since similar fireplaces are known in a number of mid-C16 to mid-C17 Devon houses, is an interesting feature and its ogee-arched opening may represent the remains of a furnace or boiler for a maltings vat or smoking chamber, although the lack of evidence for hanging meat makes the latter less likely. Completely smoke-blackened roofs are not rare in Devon, but they are nevertheless collectively a very special survival. At Gotham Farmhouse most of the roof was replaced in the C17 with collared principal rafters and two rows of purlins, but some smoke-blackened timbers survive over the former shippon (south) end. The owner considers that these timbers were retained in situ when the rest of the roof structure was replaced. Since they comprise, however, only a purlin, common rafters and lathes, which would probably have been unsupported when the principal rafters and the purlins were renewed, and a single upright to a closed truss, it is not possible to substantiate this with any certainty
and they may either remain in situ or have been re-used. The rest of the roof timbers date mostly from the early C17 and provide evidence for the remodelling of the building at this time. When it was listed, the house was recognised as being unusually complete and unaltered and a building of considerable character. New information about the interior has enhanced our appreciation of its significance and has demonstrated that the building sits more comfortably at a higher grade alongside other Devon houses with similar levels of intactness. It compares well in terms of its date and surviving fittings with other Devon longhouses, for example Ensworthy in Gidleigh; Tunhill Farmhouse and Lower Tor Farmhouse, both in Widecombe in the Moor; and Nattonhole Farmhouse in Drewsteignton. The architectural and historical qualities of Gotham Farmhouse are, therefore, sufficiently high for it to be considered of more than special interest and it clearly merits upgrading to Grade II*.
Gotham Farmhouse, a former longhouse probably of the early C16 which was remodelled and extended in mid-/late C16 and early C17, with C18 and C19 alterations, is recommended for upgrading from Grade II to Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Understanding: work carried out since it was listed has increased our appreciation of the origins and
historical development of the building;
Rarity: the sgraffito decoration is a rare survival of a once common decorative technique;
Degree of survival: for its early date and high level of intactness;
Comparators: buildings of similar date with similar features have been listed at Grade II* elsewhere.

Adams, A., 2015, Sgraffito-Decorated and Painted Plaster on Devon Fireplaces, 165-6, 170, 179; Fig 7.14 (Article in Monograph). SDV365384.

A diagonally quartered square design was used in combination with interlocked compass-drawn circles forming crescents of daisy-like petals. An example of false ashlar, drawn with wide "joints", survived in fragmentary form on the back of the fireplace, but the pattern was not retrievable from the surviving elements; the whole was later covered with a light "ashlar" re-plastering forming an unrelated grid.
This example is in a chimney obviously contemporary with a new 17th-century wing, added to the earlier house.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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