Lower Creedy Farmhouse Including Outbuildings Adjoining To North West

The property is a farmhouse, now a house, with a probable 16th-century core, largely rebuilt in the early 17th century, and modernized in the 19th century. The construction is of plastered cob on rubble footings, with volcanic rubble stacks, some topped with 19th-century brick, and a thatched roof. Originally, it was a three-room-and-through-passage house facing southwest, with an inner room at the right (southeast) end. There are end stacks to the former service and inner rooms, and an axial hall stack backing onto the former passage. In the early 17th century, rear wings were added to the service and inner rooms (the latter since demolished), and the main range was extended to the northwest, with parts now incorporated into a cross wing of outbuildings. A new front door was inserted in the 19th century in the upper end of the hall, along with a 19th-century stair block at the rear. The front has an irregular five-window façade, with the right-hand end being symmetrical around the front door. The windows are generally 3-light casements with glazing bars, some with vertical iron bars, except for a first-floor window on the left, which is an early 17th-century oak 3-light frame with ovolo-moulded mullions (the left light now blocked). The main entrance, now to the right of the center, has a 19th-century six-panel door with an overlight, and a flat-roofed porch on granite Doric columns. A secondary four-panel door is on the left, leading to the former passage, with an overlight and glazing bars. The hall stack features a 17th-century volcanic chimney shaft. A 17th-century 3-light oak window with external hollow chamfer and internal ogee moulding is located on the ground floor, southeast side, and the rear wall of the northwest extension includes an oak 2-light mullion window with ovolo moulding. The interior was extensively refurbished in the 19th century, but much 17th-century work survives, with more likely hidden. There is a massive hall fireplace with a chamfered oak lintel. Cross-beams over the 19th-century entrance lobby are chamfered with late step stops, as are all exposed 17th-century beams in the former service room, rear block, and northwest extension. The roof is inaccessible, but exposed parts indicate it comprises probably 17th-century A-frame trusses. A barn adjoining the left and projecting forward is floored with reused 17th-century beams and has a 20th-century monopitch roof of corrugated iron. Lower Creedy is a Domesday manor, and the property was held by Ropert le Peyter in the 13th century. According to Polwhele, it was rebuilt by Sir John Davie in the 17th century. The property was occupied by the Reynolds family in the 17th century, and was also the home of the composer and Exeter Cathedral organist John Davy (1763-1824).