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Summary

Farmhouse, 1830s, built for the Downes estate. The farmhouse has an interesting plan form for its date, and represents either a rebuild or very late survival of a three-room and cross-passage plan.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1197118: GREAT PARK FARMHOUSE AND ATTACHED SHIPPON AND POUNDHOUSE

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FARMHOUSE (XIX - 1830 AD to 1839 AD (Between))

Full description

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

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

Farmhouse 1830s, local volcanic trap with ashlar dressings and rusticated quoins, rear wing and right (west) return roughcast; slate roof;ridge and end stacks with brick shafts. Plan: T-plan , with 3-room through passage plan to main range and former dairy to ground floor of rear wing extended with a brick lean-to to west. Exterior: 2 storeys. Long, asymmetrical 4-window front with regular fenestration and deep, boarded eaves. The chimney shafts have blind slits in the brickwork. Panelled front door to right of centre with an overlight with diamond panes. All windows iron-frame casements with small, square panes and moulded mullions: 4 first floor 2-light windows, outer ground floor similar, 3-light casement to left of the front door. The right return is similar, the left return is roughcast. Rear dairy wing gable-ended with later windows. Panelled back door to through passage. Interior: House not inspected but likely to retain original features. Built for the Downes estate. The farmhouse has an interesting plan form for its date, similar to Wellparks (q.v.), also a Downes estate farm, and represents either a rebuild or very late survival of a 3-room and cross-passage plan.

Wapshott, E. + Morris, B., 2018, Higher Park Farm, Crediton: Desk-based Assessment and Historic Building Recording (Report - Survey). SDV362812.

South West Archaeology Ltd. (SWARCH) was commissioned by Hargreaves Architecture (the Agent) on behalf of a Private Client to carry out historic building recording for a series of redundant farm buildings at Higher Park Farm, Crediton, Devon. This work was undertaken in order to inform and guide the adaptive reuse of the farm buildings, and to provide a record of the buildings as they currently stand.

A brief but thorough examination of the farmhouse was undertaken in order to inform the interpretation of the farm buildings. This established, without a doubt, that this is not a very late three-room cross passage farmhouse, but a medieval former open hall with an early 17th century crosswing, extended to the east twice, once in the late 18th century and again in the 19th century. The south and east elevations were rebuilt, presumably in c.1852, to provide a uniform and nearsymmetrical ashlar façade that conceals the complexity of the structure; at the same time the roof was raised and replaced with bolted kingpost trusses, as per the farm buildings. It is of interest that there is a doorway direct from the
Farmhouse into the Shippon at first-floor level (currently used for a toilet) which could indicate the Shippon was semi-domestic in character.

The phasing of these buildings is relatively complex, but the historical map evidence makes it clear that, with the exception of part of the Pound House, almost all of the farm buildings standing in 1839 had been demolished and replaced by 1888. All of the extant historic farm buildings were therefore built during the 49 year period between 1839 and 1888, and the documentary sources indicate the Pound House and Shippon were built between 1839 and 1852, and the farmhouse modified and brick range built in the early 1850s.

Sources / Further Reading

SDV350785	National Heritage List for England: English Heritage. 2013. National Heritage List for England. Historic Houses Register. Digital.
SDV350786	Cartographic: Ordnance Survey. 2013. MasterMap. Ordnance Survey Digital Mapping. Digital. [Mapped feature: #110163 ]
SDV362812	Report - Survey: Wapshott, E. + Morris, B.. 2018. Higher Park Farm, Crediton: Desk-based Assessment and Historic Building Recording. Southwest Archaeology. 181115. Digital.
	Linked documents:1

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV8081 - Desk-based Assessment and Historic Building Recording: Higher Park Farm, Crediton (Ref: 181115)

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