Home Farmhouse (Vicarage Farmhouse On Os) Including Front Garden Revettment Walls Adjoining To South East Home Farmhouse Including Front Garden Revettment Walls Adjoining To South East

Home Farmhouse (also known as Vicarage Farmhouse) is a grade II* listed farmhouse, possibly a medieval church house, located in Hockworthy. It dates from the late 14th to early 15th centuries, with major improvements made in the 16th and 17th centuries and modernisation in the mid-19th century.

The building comprises an irregular L-shaped structure with the main block facing south-east. The main block is constructed of plastered stone rubble, probably with cob, while the crosswing is exposed stone rubble. Chimneys are built of stone rubble with plastered 19th-century brick shafts. The roofs are slate, replacing earlier thatch. The building is 2 storeys throughout.

The plan consists of a 2-room main block with a central through passage and a main stair rising alongside. The left room has a gable-end stack projecting forward, whilst the right room features a secondary winder stair rising in a turret projecting to the rear, with its gable-end stack backing onto a small dairy block. The dairy is lower than the main block and set back from the front. A 2-room crosswing projects forward, with the rear room being a kitchen/bakehouse with a rear gable-end stack and the front room serving as agricultural storage (now brought into domestic use).

The house has a long and complex structural history. The main block originally was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. Evidence suggests it originally extended further left and likely had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan. The left room was the medieval hall and the right room the service end, with the inner room having been demolished. Through the 16th and 17th centuries, fireplaces were progressively inserted and the house floored over. The present layout largely results from an early 17th-century renovation and late 17th-century modernisation. During this first phase, the inner room end was demolished, the hall was converted to a parlour, and the service end room became a dining room with the rear winder stair. The dairy block dates from this period. The crosswing including the kitchen was added or rebuilt in the late 17th century, and at the same time the main stair was inserted into the hall/parlour alongside the passage.

The exterior of the main block features a nearly symmetrical 3-window front of late 19th to early 20th-century casements with glazing bars. The passage front doorway is positioned right of centre, disrupting the symmetry, and contains a pair of late 17th-century fielded panel doors behind a 20th-century gabled porch. Along the eaves runs a mid-19th-century cast iron gutter with lion's head joints. The roof is gable-ended. The dairy block to the right has a front roof carried down over a 19th or 20th-century outshot. The crosswing contains 19th and 20th-century casements, with the latest lacking glazing bars. On the outer side near the front end, external stone steps lead to the first floor, with a doorway into the kitchen towards the rear, now behind a 20th-century conservatory. This block is also gable-ended with a series of pigeon holes in the front gable.

The interior contains several important features. The left room of the main block, the former hall, preserves late 16th to early 17th-century features including two crossbeams with broad unstopped soffit-chamfers, though the half beam across the chimneybreast includes pyramid stops. The stone rubble fireplace has lost its original lintel. At the head of the late 17th-century stair are turned oak balusters and a moulded handrail. Between the stairs and passage, a short section of the headbeam from a late 16th to early 17th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen is visible. In the right room, the fireplace is blocked and the crossbeam is plastered over. The dairy crossbeam features soffit-chamfering with run-out double nick stops. The kitchen in the crosswing contains a roughly-finished crossbeam and a blocked fireplace with part of its chamfered oak lintel visible. The "wash house" to the left may originally have been a walk-in curing chamber. The front room shows no original carpentry. The first floor of the wing is a single long room with plastered walls suggesting it served as service accommodation, its roof carried on collarless straight principal trusses.

The most important feature is the medieval roof over the main block, where 2 bays survive. The lower parts of the 3 trusses are plastered over but true or jointed crucks are suspected. The timbers are of large scantling, with cambered collars and saddles carrying a square-set ridge (Alcock's apex type C). False king posts rise from the collar to the saddle, with the outer 2 trusses featuring archbraces set into these posts supporting the ridge. Each bay contains single sets of curving windbraces. The roof structure is thoroughly smoke-blackened from the medieval open hearth fire. The roof originally extended further in both directions. This medieval roof is very important; its construction style places it amongst the earliest domestic roofs in Devon. The false king posts arch-braced to the ridge represent a kind of devolved crown post construction. Similar roofs exist in a group west of Exeter, including Clifford Barton in Tedburn St. Mary, The Old Rectory in Cheriton Bishop, and The Old Rectory in Lustleigh.

The garden in front of the main house and dairy is enclosed by a 19th-century low stone rubble wall which descends to revet the garden terrace above the farmyard. Stone steps lead up from the farmyard to a central gateway. The front garden also includes revettment walls adjoining to the south-east.