Hole Farmhouse Including Gate Piers Adjoining East End

Hole Farmhouse Including Gate Piers Adjoining East End

Farmhouse dating from the early to mid-16th century, with 17th-century improvements and modernisation around 1960. The house is constructed of Beerstone ashlar, with the front elevation featuring neatly coursed blocks. The remainder is also Beerstone ashlar but less regularly worked, with patches of stone rubble. The east wing includes a distinctive section of chequer-pattern walling made up of small Beerstone blocks and knapped black flint. Stone stacks with Beerstone ashlar chimney shafts rise from the structure. The roof is tiled, though it was formerly thatched.

The house follows a courtyard plan, with the main block facing south-south-east, built down the slope of the hillside. The principal block contains a three-room-and-through-passage plan: an inner room with gable-end stack at the uphill (west) end, terraced into the slope; the hall with an axial stack at its upper end backing onto the inner room; and a lower end room, probably a parlour, with a gable-end stack below the passage. Rear blocks project at right angles behind each end room. The west wing, with a gable-end stack, is thought to be the kitchen block. A lower north wing nearly encloses the courtyard and has been converted to a two-room cottage. The hall was originally open to the roof, and the Devon Sites and Monuments Record notes the survival of the original "medieval" roof. The present house appears largely to result from major mid or late 16th-century renovation, with the rear wings possibly dating from this period.

The house is now two storeys throughout. The exterior presents an irregular three-window front. The ground floor left end window is a 20th-century casement with diamond panes of leaded glass. The first floor windows are circa 1960 plate glass half dormers with hipped roofs. The other windows are 16th-century three-light Beerstone windows with Tudor arch heads and hood moulds, containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway, positioned right of centre, is a 16th-century Beerstone Tudor arch containing a 20th-century door. Directly above is a Beerstone plaque bearing the arms of the Holcombe family. The roof is gable-ended.

To the rear of the hall is a 16th-century full-height five-light window with moulded Beerstone mullions, Tudor arch headed lights and sunken spandrels. All except one blocked light contain rectangular panes of leaded glass with iron glazing bars. Smaller versions of these windows appear in both rear wings, along with a couple of probably 17th-century ovolo-moulded mullion Beerstone windows. The courtyard (northern) side of the east wing displays an attractive chequer face of small cream-coloured Beerstone blocks and black flint. The present main doorway has been inserted into the right (east) end of the main block and contains a 20th-century door.

Internal inspection was not available at the time of survey, though a Tudor arch fireplace with moulded surround and sunken spandrels was observed in the hall. The beam flooring the hall is roughly squared and probably dates from the 19th or 20th century. The Devon Sites and Monuments Record reports a "medieval" roof in this space, and the former list description mentions "old ceiling beams etc. within". The parish guide records "a fine Elizabethan fireplace on which are carved the names of Gulbart Holcombe (born 1594), Elizabeth Holcombe (born 1590) and Josias Holcombe (married 1593)". The interior appears as well preserved as the exterior. Before any full internal survey is undertaken, great care should be taken with modernisation work lest 16th or 17th-century features be disturbed.

Against the east end of the main block stands a gateway with Beerstone gateposts topped by ball finials. Although restored, the gateway is probably 17th-century.

Historical Context

The first documentary reference to Hole dates from 1249. It was the home of the Holcombe family during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. It subsequently passed to the Bartletts and then, by marriage, to the Stuckeys.