Pinn Court Farmhouse And Adjacent Wall To The West With Old Wooden Window Frame

A farmhouse with a medieval core dating to the 14th or early 15th century, subsequently altered and extended. The building is constructed of cob on a stone plinth, rendered, with a gabled-end slate roof. It originally comprised a 3-room plan with a through passage, the higher end positioned to the right of the passage. A shallow rear kitchen wing exists under a catslipe roof, and a late 19th-century rear wing containing the main stairs is separately roofed. The building is 2 storeys throughout.

The front elevation features a range of 4 windows, all 20th-century timber casements. A wide doorway, positioned left of centre, is topped by a canopy supported by heavy scrolled brackets dating to around 1700. Buttressing occurs at the left-hand angle. Both end stacks are now internal. The left-hand end has no windows.

The rear elevation includes a 19th-century gabled-end wing in brick. The kitchen wing retains two 2-light early 19th-century timber casement windows, one to each floor, each light containing 4 panes. An external sandstone lateral back stack, no longer in use, contains an inserted 20th-century window and originally heated the hall. Another stack, heating the present main room, breaks through the roof slope. A fourth stack positioned just to the rear of the roof ridge marks the position of a fireplace backing onto the passage. Two windows to the rear of the main range, positioned above a 20th-century lean-to, feature early 19th-century timber casements: one with 3 single-paned lights and the other with 2.

Internally, the front door leads into a through passage with a blocked opposed rear door. The kitchen features a deeply chamfered beam and a massive, altered end fireplace. A newel staircase to the right is built into the thickness of the stack, with treads and risers probably dating to the 17th century. The first-floor chamber of the lower end is divided into two spaces with 17th-century partitions and plaster cornices combining ovolo and cyma recta mouldings with fillet detailing. The higher end contains a rear corridor, with the hall first floor positioned 1 metre higher than the level of the lower end.

The roof structure comprises 5 medieval bays to the upper end. The hall, spanning 3 bays, features jointed crucks with apexes morticed and pegged to saddles, collars, and braces. Two central trusses are chamfered on both sides, while outer trusses are chamfered to the hall side only. One complete wind brace and fragments of others are present, with all trusses and trenched purlins smoke-blackened. The inner room spans 2 bays, containing one principal truss with purlins formerly threaded (now gone) and a hip cruck arch-braced to the ridge piece. Evidence of wind braces survives. Smoke blackening is visible throughout. The wind braces, or their fragments, are concealed from the inner roof space by 17th-century battening, which represents a second roof phase. At this time, wattle partitions were erected to provide garret accommodation.

A medieval window has been removed to the farmyard wall to the rear of the farmhouse. It is a 4-light timber window with each light slightly chamfered and trefoil-headed, featuring mullions and a sill. The lintel is 19th-century, and the top foil is an ogee, suggesting a date around 1400.

Historical records indicate that from the early 1390s, Pinn Court (then called Pynne) was the residence of the Cheyne family. Sir William Cheyne married the Pinhoe heiress, and the house may have been built by him or his son, Sir John. Both were significant political figures: Sir William was a retainer of Richard II and Henry IV, and served as Sheriff of Devon in 1408–9; Sir John served as Sheriff of Devon in 1433–4 and 1443–4.