Feniton House, Feniton Cottage and Longmeadows Lodge

Feniton House, Feniton Cottage and Longmeadows Lodge

A former rectory, now divided into three separate dwellings. The building dates from the late 16th to early 17th century on an older site, was remodelled in the early to mid 18th century, refurbished in the mid 19th century, and modernised when subdivided around 1970.

The older part is constructed of stucco on cob with stone rubble footings. The later parts are built in stone rubble and brick. The chimneys are stone rubble and brick stacks with plastered shafts. The roof is slate.

The building follows a basic T-plan, with the main block facing south-east. It is double depth, with the principal rooms arranged at the front, one on each side of a central entrance lobby and rear staircase. The left room, a parlour or dining room, has a projecting end stack; the right room, formerly a library, has a rear lateral stack. The kitchen behind the parlour has a rear lateral stack, and the remainder of the rear part is occupied by the stairs. This section forms Feniton House. The library was originally a larger room but its right end has been divided off and now belongs to Longmeadows Lodge, which occupies the rest of a crosswing projecting forward. Here a three-room cottage plan has been created by using part of the former library, infilling a carriageway and converting the space into a second room, and using a former summerhouse or billiard room at the end of the wing. Twentieth-century service extensions extend to the rear. Feniton Cottage occupies a service wing projecting to the rear of the left end of the main house.

The historic core is the front part of the main block. The axial wall between front and rear parts is cob, and the roof structure indicates a late 16th to early 17th century shell. The house was made double depth in the early to mid 18th century, when most of the present layout was established. It was refurbished in the mid 19th century, when the wings were probably added. The billiard room or summerhouse was added in the early 20th century. The building is two storeys, except the billiard room/summerhouse, which is single storey.

The main house (Feniton House) has a symmetrical five-window front arranged around a central doorway. The door is a 20th-century replacement, but the panelled reveals and Doric porch with fluted columns and moulded entablature with triglyphs are original mid 19th-century work. The two windows to the right are fifteen-pane sashes; the French windows to the left may be late 19th-century. The first-floor windows are twelve-pane sashes. The outer and centre bays have gables above, the centre one with a triangular-headed half dormer. All windows have moulded plaster architraves, and the 19th-century plaster is lightly incised as ashlar. The roof is gable-ended. The front wing (Longmeadows Lodge) is built in the same style, including the front extension. The carriageway arch is blocked by a 20th-century curved bay window with a contemporary doorway alongside. The other windows are ground-floor fifteen-pane sashes and first-floor twelve-pane sashes. The rear of the main house includes another fifteen-pane sash for the stairs. The rear block (Feniton Cottage) has an irregular collection of windows of nine, fifteen and sixteen panes.

Interior features in the main block (Feniton House) include a late 16th to early 17th-century roof over the front part, carried on side-pegged jointed crucks. There are some early to mid 18th-century fielded panel doors on the first floor, though the staircase and other details are 19th-century. Longmeadows Cottage contains mostly 20th-century detail. Feniton Cottage was not available for inspection at the time of survey and may contain features earlier than the 19th century.

A terrier of 1614 describes a Parsonage House in Feniton, presumably this building. It was already old at that time and contained on the ground floor a hall, kitchen, buttery, bakehouse, bunting house, malthouse and millhouse, with a study and seven chambers above them.