Old Court

Old Court is a house formerly forming the south range of a courtyard complex at Bickleigh Castle. Dating from the early 16th century with late 16th and 17th century remodelling, a 19th century addition, and 1930s renovations, it survives as a significant example of a high-status medieval domestic building.

The structure is built of local volcanic stone rubble with some stone dressings, under a wooden shingle roof that is gabled at the ends (formerly thatched). A front lateral stack to the left of centre has a tall stone shaft, and there is an axial stack. The right gable end is weather-boarded.

The building evidently survives from a larger courtyard complex that may originally have been linked to the gatehouse of Bickleigh Castle. Evidence suggests the present range originally extended further to the right (east) and may also have had a front left wing at right angles to it. The current arrangement is a single-depth main range of two large rooms with a through passage between them. A gabled rear wing, set at right angles to the main range in a T-plan formation, is a 19th century rebuilding or addition. A lower-roofed building adjoins at the left end.

The surviving building was originally an open hall of high quality. Smoke-blackening on the main trusses on either side of the axial stack indicates the scale of the original hall, though the use of wood preservative and replacement timbers make it difficult to establish whether the roof was open across the entire present range. Flooring over occurred in the late 16th or early 17th century, possibly in two phases. The right-hand room, heated from the axial stack, was probably used as a kitchen. The function of the left room is less clear, though the room above it was a grand first-floor chamber with an axial corridor behind it. The present through passage is narrow and its original status is unclear.

The building is two storeys. The front is asymmetrical with four windows and two moulded stone two-centred doorways. One doorway leads into the through passage; the second, to the right, is blocked and replaced by a window. Ground-floor windows include one, two and three-light stone windows with trefoil-headed lights. Four three-light timber first-floor windows have diamond leaded panes, mostly renewed except for the first from the right, which retains a moulded frame and mullions. The rear elevation shows considerable signs of rebuilding. A chamfered round-headed 16th century timber doorway, probably re-sited, leads to the lower-roofed block at the rear. The rear wing has 19th century Gothic three-light casements with arched heads.

Colonel Henson, owner of Bickleigh Castle in the 1930s, was probably responsible for most of the stone-dressed windows on the ground floor. A stump of a crosswall at the left end and wall foundations uncovered in 1986 suggest the possibility of a missing wing at right angles to the front at the left.

Interior features are substantial. The roof retains the remains of five arch-braced jointed cruck trusses with cranked collars, three tiers of threaded purlins diagonally set, a ridge and wind braces, with a strengthening piece below the ridge. The trusses are not complete and new rafters have been added. The top of a former screen projects into the roof to the right of the axial stack, and the left-hand truss was formerly closed. The truss immediately to the left of the stack is puzzling, having no arched braces but apparently never having been closed.

On the ground floor, the right-hand room with a very high ceiling has two massive cross beams with chamfers and run-out stops. The open fireplace to the axial stack is massive, with ashlar jambs and a lintel that extends over the present doorway into the passage; the right-hand jamb has been moved to the left. The left-hand room has a small open fireplace to the lateral stack and two massive unchamfered cross beams.

On the first floor above this room stands a grand chamber with remnants of a plaster cornice and one cross beam and two half beams with chamfers and scroll stops. A Beerstone fireplace has hollow-chamfered jambs and lintel. The stud partition wall at the left end of this room has a moulded doorframe (doorway blocked) with scroll stops leading into a small room at the left end of the range. This small room has the remains of a fireplace, blocked behind wall plaster, and traces of painted plaster were found during renovations and are in the possession of the owners. The axial corridor on the first floor has a large niche in the rear wall which may have been a garderobe.

Old Court is a high-status house formerly part of the Bickleigh Castle complex, though its original function is difficult to determine from the architectural detail. If it were the hall range, its position to the south of the gatehouse range would be very unusual.