Churchwalls Farmhouse

Churchwalls Farmhouse, Sampford Peverell

This is a farmhouse of late 16th to early 17th-century origin, refurbished during the late 17th to early 18th century. The main structure is built of plastered local chert rubble, with the south end wall left exposed; some sections may be cob. It has stone rubble chimney stacks, notably the original stone rubble chimney shaft in the kitchen, while other stacks are tall and built of plastered brick. The roof is now slate, though it was formerly thatched.

The building forms an L-plan with the main block facing east-south-east. It follows a 3-room-and-through-passage plan: the kitchen with gable-end stack at the south end, the hall with an axial stack backing onto the passage, and the lower end parlour with a gable-end stack, adjoined by a narrow dairy to the rear. A secondary block projects forward at right angles from the south end; this dates to the 18th or 19th century and was originally an agricultural outbuilding, now converted to a 2-room cottage with its own through passage alongside the main house. The farmhouse appears to be constructed as a single phase, though the hall seems likely to have been floored over from the beginning despite its late medieval layout. The refurbishment of the late 17th to early 18th century concentrated mainly on the lower end parlour, which was rebuilt. A narrow dairy was added at this time, accessed from the rear of the passage, and a stair was built from the parlour to a 2-room bedchamber suite above. Both the farmhouse and cottage are two storeys high, with 20th-century conservatories added to the outer south side of the cottage block.

The main block has an irregular 4-window front mostly composed of 19th and 20th-century replacement casements with glazing bars. Two original windows remain: a small single-light window to the hall just left of the front door, and a 4-light first-floor window at the right end, both late 17th to early 18th-century oak-framed with flat-faced mullions. The passage front doorway is right of centre and contains a 19th-century part-glazed 6-panel door with a contemporary flat-roofed timber porch. The main roof is gable-ended. In the rear wall, the service end dairy contains a late 17th to early 18th-century 2-light window with rectangular panes of leaded glass in an iron casement fitted with an ornate wrought-iron catch. The right end wall of the dairy contains an unglazed 4-light oak window with closely set chamfered mullions. The cottage block contains 20th-century casements, the latest without glazing bars, and is gable-ended.

Internally, the partition along the lower parlour side of the passage is an oak plank-and-muntin screen containing a blocked Tudor arch doorway. Another similar oak screen stands at the upper end of the hall; carpenter's assembly marks are visible on the hall side, though a 19th-century doorway has cut away the head of the original doorframe. Both the hall and kitchen have crossbeams with deep soffit chamfers with step stops. The hall and kitchen fireplaces are blocked. The doorway from the kitchen to the cottage block passage is an original oak Tudor arch doorway, probably relocated from the front or back of the passage. The roof over the hall and kitchen is original, carried on clean side-pegged jointed cruck trusses.

The parlour end represents the late 17th to early 18th-century refurbishment. The doorway from the passage contains a fielded 2-panel door. The parlour is lined with moulded plaster panelling in two heights, has a coved cornice, and features a bolection-moulded chimneypiece, with another identical example in the bedchamber above. Part of the oak framing between the two rooms of the former late 17th to early 18th-century bedchamber suite is exposed on the first floor and shows lighter scantling than the original work. The roof over this section is carried on an A-frame truss.

This is an interesting and well-preserved single-phase farmhouse with a late 17th to early 18th-century parlour modernisation of surprisingly high quality for a farmhouse of this size.