Poltimore Farmhouse

Poltimore Farmhouse is a remarkable example of a traditional lowland Devon farmhouse, located in an attractive valley setting and forming a group with associated farm buildings. The building is probably mid to late 15th century in origin, with major 16th and 17th century improvements (including work dated 1583), some 19th century modernisation, and a new parlour wing added in that period.

The farmhouse is constructed of exposed local calcareous stone and flint rubble with some cob to the rear. The rear block is partly timber-framed. Stone rubble stacks, cob and brick stacks, all topped with 19th and 20th century brick, support a thatch roof. The building is fundamentally T-shaped in plan, built down a gentle hillslope and facing south-south-east.

The main block forms the historic core. The original house comprised the present hall, passage and former kitchen, with hall and passage originally open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire, separated from the lower end by a closed truss. The unheated inner room at the right (east) end was originally a dairy. Next to it is the hall with a projecting front lateral stack and projecting rear newel stair turret. Between hall and passage is a narrow room, formerly a buttery or cider store. At the left (west) end is a kitchen with a gable-end stack. To the rear of the kitchen a service block projects at an angle, containing two small unheated rooms and, at its outer (west) end, a bakehouse or kitchen in a leanto with a cob stack. In front of the kitchen, a 19th century parlour wing with gable-end stack projects at right angles.

In 1583 the hall was floored over and both it and a new chamber above received fireplaces in a new stack. The stair turret was built at this date. The lower end was refurbished as a kitchen in the late 16th or early 17th century. The rear service block appears contemporary with this kitchen refurbishment, though the kitchen and bakehouse leanto and stack are probably 18th century. The inner room dairy was probably added at around the same time as the service block. In the 19th century the front parlour wing was added and the main block kitchen became the dining room. The house is two storeys with outshots rebuilt in 1985 to the rear of the main block.

The front elevation is irregular with four windows, mostly 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars, one containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The former kitchen at the left end has a late 16th or early 17th century oak six-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions and central king mullion; the left light is now blocked by the front parlour wing. The passage front doorway contains a 20th century door. The hall stack has a chamfered Beerstone plinth. The rear of the main block includes mostly late 16th and early 17th century oak-framed windows. Behind the outshot, the dairy has a four-light window with external oak and internal ovolo-moulded mullions. Two contemporary first-floor windows have chamfered mullions; one is blocked. Over the passage rear doorway is a late 17th century flat-faced mullion window. The inner room dairy end wall has a first-floor doorway with external flight of stone steps. At the kitchen (west) end is a wide segmental-headed aperture with crude dripmould, thought to be an original window which was blocked by the stack in the late 16th or early 17th century. The rear block contains late 16th and early 17th century oak windows on the inner (east) side. Two first-floor windows here have ovolo-moulded mullions and were originally five lights but have missing mullions; the rectangular panes of leaded glass in the outer lights of the left one are very old, some tinged with green. The roof of this block is half-hipped; the other roofs are gable-ended.

The interior is of considerable quality. There are three oak plank-and-muntin screens, one each side of the passage and another between buttery and hall. The crosswall at the upper end of the hall is cob and stone rubble with an original tie beam truss on top filled with wattle and daub. All crossbeams in the main block have deep chamfers with step stops. The hall contains a large Beerstone ashlar fireplace with an oak lintel, its soffit cut away but apparently originally had a low Tudor arch, with chamfered surround and urn stops. The chamber fireplace above is smaller but similar, built of Beerstone ashlar and containing a frieze with the date 1583 and initials TH (thought to be Thomas Haydon), GH and AH. A plain version exists over the kitchen. The main block kitchen has a large fireplace with plain chamfered oak lintel and side oven. The hall stair retains its original thick oak treads. Some original roof survives over the main block including an arch-braced face-pegged jointed cruck and a closed truss, though the section over the hall was replaced with side-pegged jointed crucks in the late 16th century. A late 16th or early 17th century oak-framed wall separates the main block kitchen from the rear block. On the outer (west) side, the first-floor close-studded wall jetties over the now-demolished ground floor wall, a rare example of external timber-framing in rural Devon. This block has a side-pegged jointed cruck roof truss. Several doorways throughout the house are late 16th or early 17th century with cranked heads.

Poltimore Farmhouse is one of the best examples of a traditional lowland Devon farmhouse in East Devon, remarkable for its survival and structural complexity. Documentary references to the place date back to 1170.