Brown'S Farmhouse

Brown's Farmhouse is a circa 1700 farmhouse. It is constructed of roughcast cob on stone footings, with a gabled-end thatched roof. Originally a three-room, baffle entry plan house with a barn extension to the left, the barn has since been converted to accommodation and separated from the main house by a cob wall. The principal rooms are heated by an axial stack, with a rear newel stair set in a shallow stair turret to one side of the stack, opposite the entrance. A right-hand chamber has a separate end stack supported by three wooden corbels. The left-hand room was originally heated by a rear external lateral stack, partially dismantled, and likely served as the service room.

The front of the house originally had a three-window range, now four. It contains 2- and 3-light casement windows to the first floor and five 2-light casement windows to the ground floor. A porch, located to the right of centre, features an early 18th century half-dome within a later or much repaired gable, supported by console brackets. It has a half-glazed studded door with an old lock. The rear has a six-window range with 2- and 3-light 19th century casements. A gabled-end porch is weatherboarded, with late 19th century leantos.

The interior features mostly boxed ceiling beams; two original beams remain visible, one in the left-hand room and another in the hall, with chamfered and unstopped edges. The hall fireplace has a roughly chamfered lintel. Significant early 18th century joinery is present, including large fielded panel doors (with cupboards), various hinges (mainly HL and butterfly), bobbin balusters to the rear newel stair, panelled internal shutters, and panelled backs to first-floor window seats. A small, unusually shaped cupboard in the hall, traditionally known and still used as a bible cupboard, may have served that purpose originally. Straight roof principals are visible in the upper rooms. The roof space has not been inspected.

Baffle entry plans are uncommon in Devon, making Brown's Farmhouse a good example of this plan type. The house is discussed by E Mercer in English Vernacular House (1975), page 151, plate 39.