Moonshayes Farmhouse

Moonshayes Farmhouse is a farmhouse of early or mid 16th-century origin, substantially enlarged and improved during the later 16th and 17th centuries, and refurbished in the late 19th century with contemporary service extensions.

The building is constructed of plastered local stone and flint rubble, possibly with some cob, with stone rubble chimneys; one retains its original stone rubble chimneyshaft, while the other is topped with 19th-century brick. The roof is slate, replacing earlier thatch.

The farmhouse follows an L-plan, with the main block facing east onto the farm courtyard. The main block has a four-room plan with an unheated storeroom or workshop at the north end. Adjacent to this is a small lobby connected to the workshop but separated from the main house by a partition containing the historic headbeam of an oak plank-and-muntin screen from the original through-passage. A 19th-century staircase now occupies part of what was originally the unheated inner room. Beyond this is the hall, with an axial stack backing onto two small unheated service rooms. At the south end, a three-room wing projects forward at right angles, overlapping the end and connecting only at the corner. The first room of this crosswing is a former kitchen with an axial stack and an adjacent small unheated room (formerly a dairy), with a granary at the end.

The farmhouse is two storeys. The main block undoubtedly began as an open hall house, though the inaccessible roofspace prevents confirmation of whether it was originally heated by an open hearth; however, burnt or sooted stone was reportedly found in the southern end wall during later alterations. The main block contains a somewhat altered three or four-room-and-through-passage plan. The passage front doorway survives, though the rear doorway is now blocked and the passage has been enlarged into a small room. The hall fireplace was added in the mid or late 16th century, with evidence for a contemporary stair rising alongside. This suggests that the passage and service end were floored over at the same time. The hall itself was floored over in the early 17th century. The inner room was extensively altered in the late 19th century when half was occupied by a new staircase and the other half sealed off as a lobby to the new workshop. The kitchen wing was built in the mid 17th century, with the dairy and granary added in the late 19th century.

Externally, the main block presents an irregular front with two ground-floor windows and five first-floor windows; all are 20th-century casements without glazing bars except the unglazed window to the workshop, which is 19th-century. The former passage front doorway, towards the left end, contains a 19th-century part-glazed plank door behind a 20th-century gabled porch. The workshop doorway and window have low brick segmental arches. An early 17th-century oak Tudor arch doorframe has been reset in the workshop doorway. Similar 20th-century windows appear to the rear and in the kitchen crosswing. The granary has an external flight of wooden stairs. Both wings are gable-ended.

Internally, the two service rooms in the former passage and service room space result from late 19th-century modernisation. Only the headbeam of the oak plank-and-muntin partition originally screening the lower (service) side of the through-passage survives from the earlier period. In the former hall, the fireplace is now blocked and an alcove occupies the site of the late 16th-century staircase; a late 16th-century chamfered oak doorjamb with pyramid stops visible on the first floor marks a doorway from the stairhead. The hall crossbeams are chamfered, one with step stops. The former inner room was rearranged in the 19th century, though a chamfered crossbeam remains over the partition between the 19th-century stair and lobby beyond. The main block roof is inaccessible, though the plastered or papered-over bases of trusses are visible; their shape suggests jointed crucks. The workshop has exclusively 19th-century carpentry. The kitchen contains plain chamfered crossbeams; the fireplace is blocked but its large size is evident, and its cambered oak lintel (chamfered with scroll stops) is exposed. The roof over this section was replaced in the 19th century.

Moonshayes is a multi-phase Devon farmhouse of considerable architectural interest.