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Summary

An early or mid-16th century farmhouse with major later 16th century and 17th century improvements including a mid-17th century kitchen block, refurbished in the late 19th century with some contemporary service extensions.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1098203: MOONSHAYES FARMHOUSE

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (XV to XIX - 1500 AD to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

Clements, H. A., 1994, Survey of Farmsteads in the Devon Part of the Blackdown Hills, Annotated plan (Report - Survey). SDV344050.

Devon and Somerset County Councils, 2000-2002, Historic Farmsteads Database, BH194H (Machine readable data file). SDV349681.

L-shaped house of plastered local stone under a slate roof. Farmhouse for adjacent land. Rendered; rubble stone walls. Slate roof. Formerly thatch.

Thorp, J., 2003, Moonhayes Farm, BH194005 (Ground Photograph). SDV354375.

Thorp, J., 2003, Moonhayes Farm, BH194012, BH194021-BH194022 (Un-published). SDV354376.

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

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

Moonshayes Farmhouse.

Farmhouse. Early or mid-16th century with major later 16th century and 17th century improvements including a mid-17th century kitchen block, refurbished in the late 19th century with some contemporary service extensions. Plastered local stone and flint rubble, maybe with some cob; stone rubble stacks, 1 with a stone rubble chimneyshaft, the other one topped with 19th century brick; slate roof, formerly thatch.

Plan and development: L-plan farmhouse. The main block faces east onto the farm courtyard and has a 4-room plan. At the right (north) end there is a storeroom/workshop. Next to it is a small lobby which is connected to the storeroom/workshop but not the main house. The other side of the partition is the main stair built in the 19th century. This lobby and staircase occupy the unheated inner room of the 16th century house. Next to it is the hall with an axial stack backing onto 2 small unheated service rooms. At the left (south) end a 3-room plan wing projects forward at right angles. It overlaps the end connecting only on the corner. The first room of the crosswing is a former kitchen with an axial stack backing onto a small unheated room, a former dairy, and, at the end is a granary. This is a house with a long and complex structural history. The main block contains the historic core of the house. This undoubtedly began as some form of open hall house but the roofspace is inaccessible and therefore it is not possible at present to determine whether it was then heated by an open hearth fire. (However the farmer reported finding burnt or sooted stone in the southern end wall when he enlarged a window there). The main block has a somewhat altered 3 or 4-room-and-through passage plan. The passage front doorway remains but the rear doorway is now blocked and the passage has been enlarged to a small room at the expense of the service (south) end room. The hall fireplace was added in the mid or late 16th century and there is evidence for a stair rising alongside. Thus it seems that passage and service end were floored over at the same time. The hall itself was floored over in the early 17th century. The inner room was much altered in the late 19th century when half of it was taken up by a new staircase and the other half sealed off as a lobby attached to the new workshop/storeroom built onto the end. The kitchen wing was built in the mid-17th century and the dairy and granary were added to it in the late 19th century. The farmhouse is 2 storeys.

Exterior: the main block has irregular front with 2 ground floor windows and 5 first floor windows, all are 20th century casements without glazing bars except the unglazed window to the workshop/storeroom which is 19th century. The former passage front doorway is towards the left end and it contains a 19th century part-glazed plank door behind a 20th century gabled porch. The workshop/storeroom doorway and window both have low brick segmental arches over. An early 17th century oak Tudor arch doorframe has been reset in the doorway here. There are similar 20th century windows to the rear and in the kitchen crosswing. The granary has an external flight of wooden stairs. Both wings are gable-ended. Interior: in the main block the 2 service rooms in the space of the original passage and service room are the result of the late 19th century modernisation. Only the headbeam of an oak plank-and-muntin partition which once screened the lower (service side) of the through-passage shows earlier than the 19th century. In the former hall the fireplace is now blocked and an alcove alongside occupies the site of the late 16th century staircase (a chamfered oak doorjamb with pyramid stops which shows on the first floor represents a late 16th century doorway from the stairhead). The hall crossbeams are chamfered and 1 has step stops. The former inner room was also arranged in the 19th century although a chamfered crossbeam remains over the partition between the 19th century stair and lobby beyond. The main block roof is inaccessibly although the plastered or papered over bases of the trusses show; their shape suggests jointed crucks. The workshop/storeroom has exclusively 19th century carpentry. The kitchen has plain chamfered crossbeams and although the fireplace is blocked its large size is evident and its cambered oak lintel (chamfered with scroll stops) is exposed. The roof over this section was replaced in the 19th century. Moonhayes is an interesting multi-phase Devon farmhouse.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4655 - Survey of Farmsteads in the Blackdown Hills

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