Boycombe Farmhouse

Boycombe Farmhouse is a late 16th-century farmhouse, formerly a manor house, situated in Farway. It was carefully renovated circa 1980.

The building is constructed of local flint rubble with Beerstone ashlar dressings and detailing. Stone rubble stacks support ashlar quoins, with plastered chimneyshafts (possibly of Beerstone ashlar or brick). The roof is slate, replacing original thatch. The house presents a gable-ended form to the south-east and occupies a gentle hillslope.

The plan comprises a single-phase, three-room-and-through-passage structure. At the uphill (south-west) end sits an inner room parlour with a projecting front lateral stack and a projecting rear newel stair turret (now disused), which also serves as a garderobe turret for the first-floor chambers. The hall features its own projecting front lateral stack and projecting rear newel stair turret. Below the passage lies a narrow unheated service-end room, which shows evidence of once being divided by an axial partition into two small service rooms, probably a buttery and pantry. Three of the original four first-floor bedchambers were heated. The house appears to have been two storeys from its inception. A 19th-century rear porch and lean-to woodshed have been added.

The front elevation is irregular with three windows and is dominated by the two large front stacks, which display weathered offsets. The ground-floor right window (service end) is a 20th-century hardwood casement containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The remaining windows are original, featuring Beerstone frames with hollow-chamfered mullions, Tudor arch-headed lights and sunken spandrels. They contain rectangular panes of leaded glass (some very old) and iron-framed casements, with three lights except for the hall which has four lights. Ground-floor windows bear hoodmoulds. The passage front doorway stands right of centre and now contains a 19th-century part-glazed six-panel door. Windows around other elevations are mostly original and similar in character to those on the front.

The interior is exceptionally well-preserved. The passage and service end were most affected by 19th-century alterations. The service-end room had been converted to three storeys in the 19th century but was restored to its original two storeys circa 1980, with the first floor now carried on circa 1980 elm beams chamfered with straight-cut stops. Both sides of the passage were rebuilt in brick during the 19th century; however, original head beams survive, proving both were originally similar oak plank-and-muntin screens with moulded muntins, with the hall example moulded on both sides. Each screen contained two doorways. The hall screen has been carefully reproduced, with Tudor arch heads given to the doorways based on evidence from an original head found propping up the 19th-century staircase.

The hall is particularly impressive. Its fireplace comprises Beerstone ashlar with an oak lintel and an unusually richly-moulded surround. The ceiling is a fine 16-panel ceiling of richly-moulded intersecting beams; the panels are unplastered but the exposed joists are plain. At the lower end, just below the ceiling, the headbeam of the screen features a richly-moulded cornice. The upper end crosswall is small-panelled oak framing. The arched head of the doorway was rebuilt circa 1980. The rear newel stair was rebuilt in the 19th century and again circa 1980. An adjacent round-headed alcove also dates circa 1980.

A feature that may be unique in Devon survives: the soffits of the oak lintels over the window embrasures are carved with reeding, the front one bearing a band of twisted bead and ribbon on the inner corner. The front parlour window lintel is similarly detailed with a double bend of twisted bead and ribbon. The parlour fireplace, though similar to that in the hall, is less richly moulded. A four-panel intersecting beam ceiling with plastered panels spans the space. The stair here is disused, and a semi-circular alcove occupies its position. On the end wall is a wall painting dated 1744 depicting an old bearded man shearing a sheep with a cross behind. Below is inscribed verse concerning a farmer and his sheep, with the text having been retouched.

The first-floor passage and service-end chambers are carried on closed trusses, with the roof supported by a series of clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The service-end, hall and inner-room chambers all retain original small Beerstone fireplaces with oak lintels and chamfered surrounds. The abundance of first-floor fireplaces is exceptionally luxurious for a house of this date. The hall and parlour chambers share the garderobe, with original doorways (only the hall example retaining its original cranked head). The garderobe is complete with a double-seater oak bench. At ground-floor level lies a blocked doorway from the garderobe cess pit. In the inner-room chamber, the Beerstone reveals of a window in the end wall contain ancient graffiti, including a coat of arms inscribed with the name R. Morse and dated 1619, and another depicting an erect penis.

Boycombe is an exceptionally well-preserved late 16th-century house, both externally and internally, displaying particularly good standards of craftsmanship. Notably absent is a kitchen, which must have occupied a detached building close to the house, probably to the rear. No trace survives today.

Documentary references to Boycombe date from 1248, 1330, 1377 and 1564. A measured survey by Commander E. H. D. Williams, dated October 1979 and deposited in the National Monuments Record, dates the house to circa 1500.