Berry

TIVERTON

SS91NE CHEVITHORNE 848-1/2/61 Berry

GV II

Farmhouse. Mid C16 with later alterations. Rendered cob walls; stone rubble front lateral stack. PLAN: 2 rooms of former possible 3-room plan survive, the part of the house left of the cross passage having been built in the 1990s, at which time no old foundations were identified. The surviving original part has a large hall right of the passage and a parlour at far right, the rooms divided by oak screens, and a winder stair in rear projection which served first-floor closet and chambers in separate occupancy. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; overall 5-window range (the 2 bays on left C20), the front dominated by a large stepped rubble lateral stack right of centre. C20 windows; C20 door to doorway left of stack with open lean-to porch in front; C20 conservatory right of stack. INTERIOR: has some very fine C16 features including 2 muntin and plank screens flanking the hall (rear part of passage screen removed); 3 Tudor-arched doorways: from passage to hall, hall to parlour (head of parlour doorway restored) and another to winder stair projection rear of the hall; complex-moulded crossbeams (1 beam replaced and with re-used headrail of screen at the top) and there is a double cyma-moulded cranked lintel with ogee stops to the large hall fireplace. Parlour has moulded crossbeams that intersect at the centre to form a coffered ceiling; later corner fireplace, the original fireplace possibly at the front of the room, now a large window bay. Staircase is of unusual interest with short central flight leading to flights winding to right and left, and near the top of the left-hand flight is a doorway to a closet or garderobe. This doorway and the doorways at the top of the stairs are all C16 and chamfered, the closet doorway and the doorway at the top of the right-hand flight with original planked doors. There is a similar original doorframe into the chamber above the parlour with remains of simple planked screen on its left (from landing). Original 3-bay jointed-cruck roof structure with light smoke-blackening. HISTORY: Berry was repaired by a Captain Peters between 1957 and 1972, following a long period of being uninhabited. Berry has an unassuming exterior but retains a rare and important interior of considerable interest.

Listing NGR: SS9793016458