Losses Farmhouse Including Barn Adjoining At West

Losses Farmhouse is a late 17th-century house, altered and partly rebuilt in the 19th century, with an adjoining barn. The farmhouse is located in Auliscombe, Devon. The front elevation is constructed of polychromatic red and blue brick in an irregular bond, forming patterns, with the left end wall rendered. It has a slate roof, hipped at the ends, a left-end stack, and a stack to a lean-to extending from the right. Originally a larger house, it’s now a truncated east-facing range with a principal headed room to the left (south) and a two-storey porch to the right. A single-storey lean-to replaces what was likely a second room, originally providing a symmetrical plan. A plain central stair is said to be present. Adjoining the farmhouse at a right angle to the rear is a long, single-storey barn. The farmhouse has a two-window front with regular fenestration, plus one window on the porch, which has a hipped slate roof and a terra cotta finial. A brick platband and a deep, moulded timber eaves cornice, carried around the porch, are also present. The bricks are laid in polychromatic patterns. The porch’s outer doorway has a segmental arch with a projecting keystone and a circa late 17th-century six-pane door with fielded panels. Late 17th-century windows, including one in the porch’s first floor, have flat brick arches with keystones and brick aprons. These windows are mostly 2-light casements with 19th and 20th-century glazing, except for the one above the porch, which retains its original square leaded panes. The rear elevation preserves one 17th-century window matching those on the front. The lean-to has a red tiled roof. The barn has a slate roof and a series of mostly renewed openings on its north side. The interior is reportedly plain. The farmhouse’s rarity as a 17th-century brick house in Devon, combined with its unusual polychromatic detail, is noteworthy.