Lower Ridge

Lower Ridge is a farmhouse, now a private house, located at Chardstock. The building dates from the late Medieval period and was thoroughly remodelled and extended in the early to mid 17th century.

The main structure is constructed of stone and knapped flint rubble, with the front wall to the right of the entrance being coursed and squared. The roof is thatched, except for the wing which is slated. Four 19th or 20th-century red-brick chimneys sit on the ridge.

The plan follows a through-passage arrangement with a hall and two further rooms to the right. To the left are two kitchens of different dates. At the left-hand end is a former farm building, converted to residential use in the 19th century. A long wing extends at right angles to the front wall, with the domestic part abutting the house probably dating from at least the 17th century, whilst the remainder is a former farm building. Behind the central room adjoining the hall to the right stands a 17th-century square stair-turret.

The hall was originally open to the roof, with a former internal jetty at its upper end. The building stands two storeys high, except for the second kitchen from the left which is single-storey with a loft. The three-window range to the right of the entrance was remodelled as a distinct architectural unit in the 17th century, possibly in more than one stage.

The ground storey features three Beer-stone windows with ovolo-moulded mullions and hood-moulds: three lights in the centre window and four at either side. The upper storey has three similar windows of three lights, but without hood-moulds; the two right-hand windows have hollow-moulded mullions instead. All windows have rectangular leaded panes tied to a vertical diamond-section metal bar (replaced with round ones in the right-hand upper-storey windows). Each window includes an opening iron casement with decorative catch. A chamfered plinth runs along the base, and stepped stone coping with kneelers sits on each gable-end.

The front door, positioned to the left, has a chamfered wood frame with run-out stops and a cranked head. It is a plank door with scratch mouldings, strap-hinges, and a knocker. A round-arched brick porch with a chamfered stone plinth (possibly surviving from an earlier porch) protects the entrance.

The left-hand end of the house and the front wing contain 18th or 19th-century wood-mullioned windows with leaded panes, some of which have opening iron casements with decorative catches. Similar windows appear in the rear wall. On the stair turret, the mullions are chamfered internally and probably date from the mid to late 17th century. At the base of each side-wall of the stair-turret is a small two-light wood-mullioned window with chamfered mullions on the outside; the centre mullion is missing on the left (west) side. The gable of the stair-turret has shaped bargeboards and a pendant.

The rear door to the through-passage has a plain wood frame and a bead-moulded plank door with strap-hinges featuring fleur-de-lis terminals.

Interior features are particularly notable. The hall contains a wide fireplace backed onto the passage, with chamfered stone ashlar jambs and a chamfered wood lintel. Against the opposite wall is a 17th-century panelled back to a former seat, featuring a frieze with an inlaid diamond pattern and a top cornice. Deep chamfered beams with large step-stops run across the hall; the beam at the upper end masks rounded and chamfered joist-ends of the former internal jetty. The floor is stone-flagged.

The two rooms to the right of the hall have similar beams but with shallower chamfers; the end room has exposed plain joists. In the gable-wall is a large original fireplace with Beer-stone slab cheeks painted with a black-and-white chequer-pattern. The three rooms and stair lobby contain four plank doors with scratch-mouldings and decorative strap-hinges between them. The three rooms above have similar doors, but with plainer strap-hinges on the backs. A fireplace in the upper gable-wall is similar to that below, but with a chamfered, segmental-headed stone surround retaining traces of black-and-white decoration; the cheeks display a pattern of chequered circles and diamonds with a red border at the bottom. The left-hand room has a mid 19th-century moulded wood chimneypiece with a round-arched iron grate.

The through-passage has a stone-flagged floor and a chamfered step-stopped half-beam. An ovolo-moulded door-frame leads into the hall. The first kitchen has similar beams to the hall, with a newel staircase featuring wood-block steps projecting into the wing. In the left gable-wall is a wide fireplace with jambs and lintel matching those in the hall; the right-hand end is blocked. The second kitchen has a wide fireplace backing onto the first kitchen's fireplace, with a slightly curved wood lintel and brick jambs. An oven in the back retains an iron door marked "C DENING & CO CHARD". This fireplace is a later insertion, as it blocks a lime-plastered wall in the loft.

The former farm building contains beams that appear to have come from a linhay (an open-sided agricultural shelter), with marks of former loft-posts visible in the upper-storey masonry. The wing has a stone-slab floor in the ground storey adjoining the house and a cobbled floor in the agricultural part.

The roof over the hall and the two rooms to the right has trusses probably dating from the 17th or 18th century, with collars pegged to the faces of the principals, through-purlins, and a ridge. Similar trusses appear over the left-hand end of the building. Over the division between the passage and the first kitchen is an older closed truss with a tenoned collar retaining its original infill above. The front section of the wing has posts of former jointed crucks. Foundations of former farm buildings are visible near the house.

Lower Ridge is an exemplary model of the Devon farmhouse type, notable for its representation of multi-phase development and for its retention of many interior features such as the black-and-white decorated fireplaces and hall bench.