Old Triffords Farmhouse

Old Triffords Farmhouse is a grade II* listed farmhouse of early-to-mid 16th-century date with substantial later 16th and 17th-century improvements. It sits on the hillslope near Widworthy in Devon.

The house comprises an L-plan arrangement. The main block, built down the slope, has a 3-room-and-through-passage plan facing south-east. At the uphill (south-west) end is a small unheated inner room, originally a dairy or buttery. The hall adjoins it with an axial stack backing onto the passage. At the downhill (north-east) end is an unheated service room, now used as a woodstore, which opens to the roof. There is no passage partition on the lower side. A 1-room parlour crosswing projects at right angles, partially overlapping the left end of the main block. This wing has a stack serving ground and first-floor chambers. A stair turret sits in the angle between the two wings, providing both a lobby between the hall and parlour and access to upper floors. The service room and passage are open to the roof; the rest of the main block is 2 storeys, as is the parlour crosswing, which includes a loft above.

The original house (the main block) had an open hall heated by an open hearth fire, with a bedchamber above the dairy-buttery. The hall was floored over and fitted with a stack in the mid-16th century, and probably again during the mid-17th century when the parlour wing and stair turret were built. The hall subsequently served as the kitchen. A limestone block inscribed with the date 1668 on the parlour wing end may indicate when this wing was constructed.

The exterior is constructed of local stone and flint rubble in parts, and cob on stone rubble footings in others, some plastered. Stone rubble chimneys are topped with 19th and 20th-century brick. The roof is thatched, though now covered with corrugated iron and plastic. The main block front contains a single window to the hall (a late 19th- or early 20th-century casement with glazing bars) and a 19th-century 2-flap plank door to the passage. The stair turret front contains a small 17th-century oak-framed light with rectangular glass panes. The inner side of the parlour crosswing has an original Beers-tone 3-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions, hoodmould, and rectangular leaded glass panes. Other windows are late 19th- or early 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The main block roof is hipped at both ends; the parlour wing roof is gable-ended.

The interior reveals substantial structural information. The passage and service woodstore open to the roof, the lower passage partition having been removed. The hall features a large stone fireplace with two chamfered oak lintels, an oven (relined in the 19th century), and a crossbeam with plain chamfering. The partition at the upper end of the hall is an exposed oak plank-and-muntin screen visible only in the dairy-buttery. The main block roof is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. The section over the hall, including the underside of the original thatch, is heavily sooted from the original open hearth fire. The truss over the hall-inner room partition was originally closed and is blackened on the hall side only; both end sections are clean. The stair turret contains an early 17th-century winder stair. The parlour fireplace is now blocked by a 19th-century grate, but the original fireplace remains visible, constructed in Membury stone ashlar with a Tudor arch head. A smaller version serves the chamber above. Both parlour and chamber feature chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeams. The parlour chamber chimneybreast includes a couple of 17th-century moulded plaster rosettes. The parlour wing is carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses.

As of 1987, the farmhouse had been empty for 30 to 40 years and had undergone no 20th-century modernisation. It represents an interesting and attractive multi-phase Devon farmhouse.