Venn'S Farmhouse And Adjoining Farmbuildings To South-West

SOWTON SOWTON LANE (east side) SX 99 SE 1/48 Venn's Farmhouse and adjoining - farmbuildings to south-west

• II

Farmhouse with adjoining barn and farm building range. Probably C17 with C18 and C19 alterations and additions. Roughcast cob, except to the front wall which is of brick; gabled end thatched roof. The farm buildings are of unrendered cob on stone footings, with hipped thatched roof, and gabled-end slate roof. House was originally a 3-room plan house, possibly with a cross passage (there is no door opposing that to the front) with the hall and inner room to the right, and the service end to the left; a late-C18 wing extends to the rear of the service end; there is structural evidence that it replaces an earlier rear room, and this is confirmed by its odd alignment at an oblique angle to the house. Service room heated by an internal end stack, the hall by an external rear lateral stack. The inner room is unheated, and the rear wing has an internal fireplace with bake oven set in one of the rear corners. All stacks with brick shafts. 2 storeys. Front: C19 brick refacing; regular 5-window range; first floor with C19 3-light casement windows, lintels at eaves level; leanto tiled canopy to doorway, with one 3-light casement window to the left, 3 to the right, all with segmental window arches. A brick, thatched leanto abuts the left hand end, with a small 2-light casement window in the gable wall. The farm buildings stand forward of the house, and extend to the right of the farmhouse along Sowton Lane; tall cob barn stands end-on to the road, with 1 small ground floor opening only : attached to this is a lower cob barn, with wagon entrance to the farmstead to the left all under continuous slate roof. N W Alcock, 'Houses in an East Devon Parish', Trans. Devon Assoc, 94 (1962) pp. 207-8, fig.14.

Listing NGR: SX9779592764