South West, South East And North East Ranges Of Buildings To Lower Yard To Middle Blagdon Farmhouse

South West, South East and North East Ranges of Buildings to Lower Yard at Middle Blagdon Farmhouse

This is a group of farm buildings forming three sides of a lower yard at Middle Blagdon Farm, constructed around the 1870s. The buildings are of Group Value II significance and represent a rare example in Devon of a large-scale split-level Victorian farmyard still in agricultural use and relatively unaltered.

The buildings are constructed from local stone rubble with some local red breccia and red brick dressings, with turnerised slate roofs. They form part of a planned double courtyard of farm buildings to the rear of Middle Blagdon Farmhouse. The lower yard functioned as a cattle yard with steps down from a lane that divided it from the higher yard, with access to fields on the north side.

The south west range backs onto the dividing lane with first-floor access from the lane. A steep flight of steps down in the centre is flanked by buildings. The north east range consists of a lofted shippon with a massive hay store on the north east (field) side and a horse engine house. Steps on the north east side at the south end lead up to the rear of the south east range. On the yard side of this range are open-fronted shelter sheds facing the yard, with a cartshed to the rear flanked by gabled blocks.

The buildings mostly have double platbands below the eaves. The north east range features eight segmental-headed doorways on the yard side (one blocked) with red brick arches and red breccia jambs, with original doors of vertical slats. There are three segmental-headed loft doors with brick arches, a loft doorway on the left return and a segmental-headed window below. The rear elevation has two doorways and a loft door opening into the tall, five-sided hay store with a torched slate roof. A horse-engine house with canted end is attached to the rear of the range, with red breccia stone steps at the south end leading up to the loft level of the south east range.

The south east range has a four-bay shelter shed facing the yard with wide segmental-headed brick arches on stone piers. On the upper side it comprises a three-bay cartshed with stone piers between two gabled blocks. The right-hand block has a double door and a gabled left return with brick bull's-eye windows above the cartshed roof. The left-hand block has a tall round-headed brick doorway.

The south west range has a flight of steep red breccia steps up to the lane between the yards on the yard side. These are flanked by small blocks with a single doorway each on the yard side and lean-to roofs with small openings (two each) on the lane side. The outer blocks are taller with gabled roofs; the left-hand has a segmental-headed doorway in the centre flanked by small windows. The rear elevation from the lane has three doorways at loft level. The right-hand block has a segmental-headed doorway on the yard side and two doorways at loft level from the lane.

Good quality carpentry survives throughout. The shelter shed range has scissor bracing to the joists, and the cartshed above has a remarkably elaborate trussed roof with diagonal bracing augmented with iron ties. Some of the buildings retain original feeding troughs and similar features.

The farmyard served 220 acres of agricultural land.