Mohuns Ottery Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Completely rebuilt in 1868 after a fire destroyed the earlier manor house. It is constructed of local stone and flint rubble with Beerstone ashlar quoins and detailing, with stone rubble stacks topped with 20th-century brick replacing former Beerstone ashlar chimney shafts. The roof is slate. The house follows a U-plan with a four-room main block facing south; the entrance hall is located left of centre and is fronted by a two-storey porch. The central rooms are heated by axial stacks, and the left-hand (west) end room shares a rear lateral stack with the adjacent kitchen. Two-room plan service blocks project at right angles to the rear; the left block contains the kitchen, while the right block has been divided into separate accommodation. The house has two storeys and is in a Tudor Gothic style. The front elevation has an asymmetrical arrangement of 1:1:3 windows, featuring Beerstone Tudor-style windows with chamfered mullions, most of which have hoodmoulds. The porch is largely ashlar, with a gable, cusped bargeboards and canted corners with corbelled shoulders. The outer arch of the porch is a four-centred arch with a moulded surround and capitals to the main shafts, featuring restored, mid-16th century early Renaissance carving in the spandrels and hoodmould, believed to have been salvaged from the burnt-out shell of Peter Carew’s former manor house. Behind this porch is a restored and reset mid-16th century stone doorway with an elliptical head; Peter Carew’s initials are carved in the spandrels, and it contains a 19th-century panelled door. The main roof has hipped ends. The rear and side blocks have windows with ashlar flat arches above, containing 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars. The rear blocks have gable ends with cusped bargeboards. The interior retains a significant amount of original 1868 joinery detail. Mohuns Ottery Farmhouse is a complete rebuild of the former manor house, which was likely situated a little further north; the cider house was probably part of the older house. Mohuns Ottery, also known as Ottery Fleming, was called Otri in the Domesday Book. By 1303, the Carew family had succeeded the Mohuns and established a large house and park. The house, probably rebuilt by Sir Peter Carew (1512-75), burnt down in 1868 and was subsequently rebuilt as the present farmhouse. Sir Peter’s elder brother, Sir George, as Henry VIII's Vice Admiral, was lost on the Mary Rose in 1545.