Greenover Farmhouse Including Front Garden Walls, Gate, Pump And Barn

Greenover Farmhouse Including Front Garden Walls, Gate, Pump and Barn

A farmhouse, now private house, located on Horsepool Street in Higher Brixham. The building dates to the early or mid 17th century, possibly earlier.

The main structure has solid rendered walls, with the left wing constructed of exposed stone rubble. The roof is slate, with corrugated iron covering a rear lean-to. Two large rendered chimneys project from the front wall with tapered caps heightened at a later date; three further rendered chimneys stand on the right wing and one on the left. The plan follows a traditional 3-room and through-passage arrangement, with the hall and parlour now combined. A full-length rear lean-to, possibly original, extends across the back. Projecting cross-wings flank either end, likely later additions: the right wing is part of the original structure, while the left wing was converted in 1990–1 from what was probably the threshing-barn. A lean-to with a rounded pillar at its front end is attached to the left side of the barn, possibly a formerly open-fronted cartshed. A further lean-to at the barn's rear contains two small compartments, possibly pigsties, with a loft above, said formerly to have been an apple loft.

The exterior presents two storeys. The main range is three windows wide. The front doorway, positioned off-centre to the right, has a plank door with an ornate Gothic iron knocker. A second doorway to its right, also with a plank door and likely a later addition since the wing's side has been cut away to provide access, stands nearby. Both doors are sheltered by lean-to wooden hoods with slated roofs. Windows throughout feature 3-light wood casements with 6 panes per light; those on the ground storey have L-hinges, while those on the upper storey have slate-hung gables. The right wing's gable-end has no windows. Its left side wall contains an 8-paned fixed wood sash on the ground storey and a 3-light wood casement with 6 panes per light and slate-hung gable above. At the left-hand end of the ground storey is a set-back section of walling with another 8-paned fixed wood sash; the lower left pane was formerly hinged, possibly for the sale of milk. The left wing's gable-end accommodates an inserted doorway and window on the ground storey, with an original ventilation slit above. Its left side wall features a large central opening, probably the former threshing-barn door, to the right of which is a large window, possibly a former loading-hatch. The right side wall contains a blocked former doorway, now converted into a window; the front wall of the house has been cut back to make way for it, and it probably served as the rear door of the threshing floor. The rear wall carries two wood casement windows, one with 3 panes per light and the other with 8 panes per light. The supposed pigsties have plank doors fitted with strap-hinges.

The interior contains a stud-and-panel partition to the right of the through-passage, with lightly moulded studs in 17th or 18th-century fashion; similar panelling appears at the stairhead. The two left-hand ground-storey rooms have chamfered step-stopped joists running from front to back with no beams. The rear wall of the first left-hand room, which divides it from the lean-to, is constructed of thick wooden studs evidently designed to be lathed over rather than filled with wattle and daub. The roof of the main range appears mostly to have been rebuilt, probably in the 19th century, but three 17th-century trusses survive at the right-hand end. These trusses feature through-purlins, slots for the former ridge, and collars pegged to the faces of principals. Gouged carpenter's marks are visible, including an unusual one in the shape of an Arabic 4. The feet of the trusses rise from the wall-tops, where they are boxed in.

Subsidiary features include a front garden with a stone rubble wall with chamfered coping that rises to form gate piers with flat stone caps opposite the front door. An iron gate with 5 round horizontal bars, 2 diagonal braces, and side-pieces scrolled at the top provides access. To the left of the path to the front door stands a low stone rubble wall with flat stone coping and an iron gate with pairs of uprights joined at the top to form hoops. The rear section of this wall has a chamfered red sandstone coping with a three-quarter-round moulding at the top. On the right side of the path is a short stretch of similar walling. Beneath the path itself is a capped well serving a pump positioned in front of the right wing. The pump bears an old square lead top inscribed with the initials W B and the date 1746. The property was formerly said to have been called Hill Farm.