Bremridge Farmhouse Including Two Adjoining Cob Garden Walls To South West

Bremridge Farmhouse, including two adjoining cob garden walls to the south-west

A farmhouse of early to mid 16th-century origin with major 16th and 17th-century improvements, and modernisation in the early 19th century. The building is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings of volcanic stone and brick stacks, with a slate roof (formerly thatch).

The house is a 3-room-and-through-passage structure facing south-west, with an inner room at the south-east end. It features projecting end stacks serving the service and inner rooms, and a lateral stack projecting to the front of the hall. A 17th-century stair block stands to the rear of the hall. Rear outshots with lean-to roofs continue the pitch of the main roof. The rear passage door has been blocked in the 20th century. The building now has 2 storeys, with a 4-window front comprising irregularly disposed 20th-century casements of various sizes. To the left of centre stands an early 19th-century 6-panel passage door with the top pair glazed and reverse diagonal planking, panelled reveals, and an early 19th-century flat hood with panelled underside and shaped consoles. The hall stack appears to contain an original late 16th to early 17th-century stone chimney shaft, now plastered and surmounted by 19th-century brickwork.

Interior features of exceptional interest survive. The original roof structure is partially intact: the south-eastern four of the original 6 bays remain, indicating the house was originally part-floored. The inner room and first-floor chamber date from the beginning of the building, and an original full-height partition at the upper end of the hall survives intact. This comprises an oak plank-and-muntin screen with chamfered muntins, roll-stopped sufficiently high to accommodate an upper-end bench. A hollow-chamfered frieze runs along the headbeam of the screen, with large framing above and a filling truss. The screen retains isolated traces of ancient colour: 16th-century yellow and black paint. The roof is clean over the inner room chamber but smoke-blackened over the hall and passage, indicating the original house was heated by open-hearth fire.

The open trusses north-westwards of the inner room partition are side-pegged jointed crucks with chamfered arch-bracing and carved bosses at the apex (similar to those at nearby Prowse). They carry three sets of chamfered butt purlins and a ridge with single sets of windbraces. In the late 16th to early 17th century, the service end was floored and the chamber over the passage has an internal jetty to the hall. The bressumer is chamfered with step stops and carries a low oak plank-and-muntin screen with plastered infill above, closing the truss. The plaster face towards the hall is clean, suggesting the hall fireplace was inserted at the same time. This is a large volcanic stone fireplace with a small side-light to the right, an oak lintel, and chamfered surround.

In the early to mid 17th century, the hall was floored with a richly-moulded and scroll-stopped cross beam, and a stair block was added to the rear. The oak door frame from the hall to the stairs has an ovolo-moulded surround with urn stops and contains an original 6-panel studded oak plank door with applied broad bead-moulded rails and muntins. The stair was replaced in the 19th century. The inner room has a small late 17th-century moulded plaster bolection rib oval on the ceiling and a blocked 18th or 19th-century brick fireplace. The service end was rebuilt in the 19th century with a new roof, passage screen, and fireplace with an applied chimneypiece featuring Tuscan pilasters and dentil cornice under the mantleshelf.

From each end of the frontage, plastered cob walls on rubble footings with pitched pantile roofs extend forward to the south-west along the sides of the front garden. The wall to the left (north-east) returns around the kitchen garden.

This is a well-preserved and historically important farmhouse. The Bremridge family are recorded from 1200, and William Benelrig was the occupant in 1330 (Place Names of Devon).