Starr'S Farmhouse

SOWTON SOWTON LANE (east side) SX 99 SE 1/45 Starr's Farmhouse - GV II

Farmhouse. Early to mid C17 with later alterations. Plastered cob and Heavitree stone, with a brick outshut; gabled-end thatched roof. 2-room, through-passage plan house, the hall to the left, and the parlour to the right of the passage, both heated by external end stacks; unheated room to rear of parlour, probably originally a dairy; later brick outshut to rear of hall comprising 2 service rooms. 2 storeys. Front: almost symmetrical 3-window range; one 3-light and two 4-light casement windows to first floor; one 4-light casement window to either side of doorway which has a segmental arch. Brick surrounds and arches to all windows. Left-hand side: 2-light casement to first floor; C20 window to outshut, the slated roof of which almost reaches the level of the eaves of the main range. Right-hand end: the wing (which is also thatched) with a 3-light casement window to both floors. Interior: only the hall was inspected; those features noted Dr Alcock are still in situ, namely the 3 chamfered ceiling beams, fireplace lintel, and the post between the doors to the 2 service rooms, and the lintel across them both (which confirms the existence of a C17 service area here before the outshut was rebuilt in brick). 2 ovolo moulded ceiling beams to parlour with complex stops; 2 jointed crucks to roof, one towards the ends of each of the principal rooms. N W Alcock's, 'Houses in an East Devon Parish', Trans. Devon Assoc., 94 (1962), pp. 208-9., p1.10; figs. 12 and 15, the latter figure giving the section of the stops and mouldings.

Listing NGR: SX9782692891