Middle Woodbeer Farmhouse

PLYMTREE ST 00 SE 3/129 Middle Woodbeer Farmhouse - GV II

Farmhouse. Early C17, refurbished in 1845. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; C19 work in local stone rubble with brick dressings and some is all brick; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and C20 brick; thatch roof. Plan and development: L-plan house. The main block faces south-east and has a 4- room plan. At the left (south-west) end is a parlour with a gable-end stack. There is a straight flight staircase behind the main front doorway between the parlour and the next room which was originally an unheated service room, probably a buttery. Right of centre is the dining room or hall with an axial stack backing onto a former kitchen with an end stack. In the C19 or early C20 the partition between the buttery and dining room was removed and a partition built across the former kitchen. A 1-room plan dairy block projects at right angles to rear of the right (former kitchen) end. The layout is essentially that of the single phase early C17 farmhouse although it was somewhat altered in 1845. The parlour end is a complete rebuild of that date and this included the provision of a narrow cheese loft at first floor level across the back and provided with its own timber staircase from the outside. Also the main stair is C19 and maybe on the site of a former passage. The dairy block is also C19 but is thought to incorporate some earlier work. Farmhouse is 2 storeys with secondary lean-to outshots to rear. Exterior: irregular 4-window front of various C19 and C20 casements, most with glazing bars, some without and one (first floor right) containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The main front doorway is left of centre and it contains a part- glazed door behind a C20 conservatory. Second door at right end also contains a plank door. Roof has a steep half hip to right and is gable-ended to left. Left end chimney-shaft contains a Beerstone plaque inscribed 1845. Interior: the parlour end and dairy block have wholly 1845 features, and much of the joinery detail around the rest of the house dates from thn. The former kitchen has a chamfered crossbeam. The fireplace here was refurbished in the C19 but its chamfered oak lintel is C17. The dining room/hall fireplace is stone rubble with a chamfered and scroll stopped oak lintel. No beam here. The former buttery has a slender axial beam, chamfered with scroll stops. The main block roof (apart from the parlour section) is early C17 and carried on large scantling side-pegged jointed crucks with cambered collars. The truss over the dining room/buttery partition was closed from the beginning. Roofspace was not available for inspection but the farmer reports that the timbers are clean.

Listing NGR: ST0654504302