Radford

Radford is a house, now farmhouse, probably dating from the 15th century with early 17th-century alterations and extensions. It is constructed of stone rubble and cob, with a rag slate roof featuring gable and hipped ends, including some early crested ridge tiles. Stone rubble stacks are positioned axially, at the ends, and laterally.

The building follows a courtyard plan with a main south-facing range comprising a three-room and through-passage arrangement. The lower end to the left (east) is heated by a rear lateral stack with a newel stair adjoining it providing access to the chamber above. The hall occupies the right of centre and is heated by a rear lateral stack. The inner room beyond, to the right (west), is heated by an end stack. A wing of late 16th or early 17th-century date fronts the north-west, comprising a single room heated by an end stack. A further wing to the front left (north-east) appears to be a later 17th or 18th-century extension and is unheated. The north wall encloses the courtyard with a central 17th-century entrance flanked by walls.

The chronological development remains uncertain, and only part of the roof structure was accessible during survey. The hall appears to have been open to the roof, whilst the lower end was possibly ceiled from the beginning. The lower end features doorframes of Medieval character, probably 16th-century, connecting the passage to both the lower end and the stair projection. A cross wall on the lower side of the passage rises to the roof apex. The cross wall on the higher side of the passage may represent a later 16th-century replacement of a hall screen, possibly altered when a small chamber was inserted above the passage and jetted into the hall. The thinner partition above this putative jetty continues to the roof apex.

A hall bay was added in the late 16th or early 17th century adjoining the hall stack projection. When exposed briefly in the 1970s, the hall floor joists revealed forked branches forming the structure, with the date '1511' inscribed on one branch. The roof above the hall and inner room was likely raised when the hall floor was inserted, with an axial stack subsequently added to the cross wall between these rooms to heat the chamber above the hall. The wing to the front of the inner room was probably added at this period, as was a stair projection to the front of the hall. The high-quality carving of the doorframes from the stair projection to the first-floor chambers suggests an early to mid-17th-century date. The inner room was panelled in the late 17th or early 18th century, and bolection-moulded chimney-pieces in two chambers indicate further alterations of this period. The unheated wing to the front of the lower end is probably 18th-century, possibly occupying the site of an earlier wing. The wing to the front right was partly rebuilt in the 20th century.

Exterior

The north elevation faces the courtyard with wings to the front right and left, and a three-storey stair projection to the right of centre in the angle with the front right-hand wing. The elevation displays an asymmetrical 2:1 window arrangement. The entrance to the left of centre has a 19th-century door with an ovolo-moulded timber lintel and slate hood above. To the left is a 19th-century two-light casement; to the right is a 20th-century window with a 17th-century ovolo-moulded timber lintel. The roof levels vary, with a lower roof over the lower end and passage and a raised roof above the hall and inner room. Fronting the hall on the right is a gabled three-storey stair projection with 17th-century ovolo-moulded lintels to window openings; the ground floor has an unglazed small two-light timber mullion window. A 19th-century three-light casement lights the first floor, and a one-light casement in a partly blocked opening lights the attic. The two-storey wing to the front right has been partly rebuilt in the 20th century with modern fenestration. The two-storey wing to the front left has a 19th-century two-light casement in the side wall and a plank double door in the end with pigeon holes above. The left-hand side elevation of this wing contains several altered openings including a 17th-century unglazed three-light timber mullion window lighting the upper floor. The left-hand (lower) gable end of the main range is constructed of particularly fine masonry with slate galetting.

The south elevation is two storeys with an asymmetrical two-window front. A double gable end occurs to the left, with a lower roof over the passage and lower end to the right. The entrance to the right of centre features a 17th-century moulded door frame with ornate vase stops and a slate hood above. To the right of the entrance is a stair projection with narrow slit openings and an adjoining projecting lateral stack heating the lower end; this stack shaft was partly rebuilt in the mid-20th century. To the left is the projecting lateral hall stack with a gabled two-storey hall bay adjoining on the higher (left-hand) side and a two-storey gabled end to the inner room beyond. Two 19th-century 24-pane sashes on the ground floor are topped by moulded slate strings, with two 19th-century 16-pane sashes above lighting the chambers over the inner room and hall.

Interior

A wide through-passage contains an early rounded timber arched doorframe on the lower side, fitted with a 17th-century door with moulded cover strips. The lower end has heavy chamfered floor joists with deep straight-cut stops. Part of the deeply chamfered lintel to the fireplace is visible, and the adjoining entrance to the stone newel stair features an early rounded arch rebated for a door, with a similar rounded arched doorframe above. The 17th-century moulded doorframe to the hall displays high-quality carved vase stops. The hall has a high plastered ceiling with the putative jetty plastered over. A 20th-century hall fireplace retains a small piece of decoratively carved slate lintel bearing heraldic arms.

The inner room features complete late 17th or early 18th-century raised and fielded panelling with a circa 18th-century simple marble chimney-piece and heavy 18th-century moulded cornice. The doorframe from the early to mid-17th-century stair projection is moulded with ornate stops on both faces. A small cupboard on the ground floor of the projection retains early butterfly hinges. The 17th-century stair has been partly remodelled and reset but retains original turned newels, turned balustered rail, and thin deep moulded rail. First-floor doorframes to chambers above the hall, inner room, and front right-hand wing are moulded and ornately stopped, coeval with the stair. Some circa late 17th or early 18th-century panelling has been reset at the top of the stair. The third flight, leading from the hall chamber to the attic, has been blocked; the moulded 17th-century doorframe survives intact but is now wallpapered over.

The roof was largely inaccessible during survey. The trusses above the hall, inner room, and front right-hand wing are heavy with deeply trenched or threaded purlins. The trusses above the lower end are morticed at the apices with halved, lap-jointed and pegged cambered, chamfered collars and deeply trenched and threaded purlins.

Historical Note

In a 1646 list of "Papists and delinquents" residing in North Devon, the Royalist Captain Thomas Eastcot of Radford was marked as "notorious".