Higher Wotton Farmhouse

SX 79 NE 5/71

COLEBROOKE Higher Wotton Farmhouse

II

Farmhouse. Mid-late C16 with C17 improvements and extension, modernised and extended in late C19. Plastered cob on rubble footings; stone rubble stacks, one with original stone chimney shaft and others with C19 brick tops; asbestos-tile roof (formerly thatch). 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south with inner roan at left (west) end. Late C17 rear block at right angles behind hall and inner room and Cl9 extension to service room. 2 storeys. Irregular 6-window front of different-sized but contemporary early C20 large-pane casements with glazing bars. Hall and inner roan at left end has regular 3-window arrangement of large casements and those on first floor have gables rising from eaves over. Passage has early C20 partly-glazed front door with contemporary monopitch and asbestos-tile roofed hood on curving brackets. The C19 extension has a secondary door with a large C20 open-sided porch with gabled and asbestos-tile roof. Roof is gable-ended to left and hipped to right. Original volcanic ashlar chimney shaft with coping to hall stack. The roof and eaves drops down twice from left to right. Rear block has a C19 first floor casement with glazing bars on inner side and its roof has hipped end. Interior features are mostly result of C19 superficial modernisation. The original plan is intact and many C16 and C17 features undoubtedly survive under later plaster. All the fireplaces for instance are blocked and the large-framed crosswalls at either end of hall can be seen in the roof space. Hall fireplace is blocked but its granite jamb is partly exposed in a cupboard to the left. Another cupboard to the right contains the remains of stairs from the hall to the passage chamber which must have jettied into the open hall alongside the chimney breast. A round-headed alcove in rear wall may be the blocked door to a projecting newel stair turret (now replaced by a straight flight stair) and there is a similar round-headed arch on first floor from stair head to the inner room chamber. Hall was floored in mid C17 with a soffit-chamfered and bar-runout stopped crossbeam. No early features show in inner room. Service room has late C17-early C18 plain- chamfered crossbeam. Fireplace here is blocked but its oven projection can be seen in Cl9 extension. Rear block has late C17 cross beam, soffit-chamfered with straight cut stops. C16 roof intact over passage, hall, and inner room, comprising side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. Either end of hall are large-framed closed trusses with hazel wattling showing in places and open truss over hall has cambered collar. Probably early C18 A-frame truss over service roan has pegged lap-jointed collar and X-apex. A plaster plaque is said to have been removed from over the front passage door within living memory. It was apparently dated 1715. Higher Wotton is a distinct medieval estate. Source. Devon SMR

Listing NGR: SX7695897977