Little Clyst William Farmhouse

Little Clyst William Farmhouse

Farmhouse dating from the early to mid 16th century with major improvements in the late 16th and 17th centuries, and some 19th-century alterations. The building is constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with some 19th-century brick patching. Stone rubble and cob stacks are topped with 19th and 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched, though the rear section has been replaced with corrugated asbestos.

The house follows an L-plan and faces roughly north, built across the hillslope. The main block displays a four-room-and-through-passage plan. At the left (east) end is an inner room parlour with a projecting gable-end stack, now used as a kitchen. Next to it is the former hall, now the dining room, with an axial stack backing onto the passage. On the other side of the passage is the former kitchen with an axial stack, backing onto the right (west) end room, an unheated outhouse. A one-room dairy or buttery block projects at right angles to the rear of the left end.

The three-room-and-through-passage section represents the historic core of the house. Evidence in the roofspace indicates the original house was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partition screens and heated by an open hearth fire. The inner room was floored over very soon after construction, with a chamber jetted into the open hall. The service end was similarly floored over at an early stage. In the mid to late 16th century the passage was floored over and a hall chimneystack was inserted. The house was substantially transformed in the early to mid 17th century, probably in more than one phase. Both the inner room and service end were enlarged, given new chimneystacks, and converted to parlour and kitchen respectively. The hall was floored over and the dairy/buttery block was added. An outhouse was built onto the kitchen end at a later date, and was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century. The farmhouse is two storeys, with a 20th-century conservatory to the rear of the hall and a secondary lean-to outshot to the rear of the right end.

The irregular four-window front features 19th and 20th-century casements with glazing bars; the first-floor windows have thatch eyebrows over them. Three front doorways are now present. The central doorway is the passage entrance, containing a late 19th to early 20th-century four-panel door behind a 20th-century slate-roofed porch. To the left, a doorway has been inserted into the inner room parlour; it contains a 20th-century part-glazed door under a contemporary thatch-roofed porch. To the right is a doorway into the outhouse containing a plank door under a slate-roofed hood. The main roof is gable-ended to the left and hipped to the right. The dairy/buttery block roof is hipped.

The interior contains significant features. On the lower (former kitchen) side of the passage, part of an oak plank-and-muntin screen has been exposed, with unusually wide muntins suggesting an early date, possibly an original low partition screen. The kitchen features 17th-century work: an axial beam of large scantling chamfered with run-out stops, and a large fireplace of stone rubble with a chamfered oak lintel with scroll-nick stops. In the hall, the fireplace is blocked by a 19th-century grate with an Adams style timber chimneypiece. The crossbeam is moulded with scroll stops. At the upper end is evidence of the jetted inner room chamber. Underneath is another early oak plank-and-muntin screen with wide planks and muntins, possibly an original low partition screen. The tile muntins are chamfered with diagonal cut stops. The arched head of the doorway has been slightly altered. The parlour has a moulded axial beam with scroll stops, though its fireplace is blocked. The dairy/buttery crossbeam is chamfered with scroll stops. The house contains a great deal of old joinery detail throughout.

The roof of the main house is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. Those at each end are 17th-century. The kitchen truss is inaccessible. The truss over the parlour has a pegged dovetail-shaped lap-jointed collar; there is a similar truss over the rear block. A closed truss spans the inner room side of the passage. The roof timbers over the parlour nearest the jetty crosswall are lightly smoke-blackened, whereas the hall roof, including the hall faces of the two crosswalls, are heavily smoke-blackened from the open hearth fire.

This is an attractive and interesting multi-phase Devon farmhouse with well-preserved late medieval features.