Higher East Coombe Farmhouse

Higher East Coombe Farmhouse is a farmhouse dating from around the late 15th or early 16th century, with alterations and rebuilding in the early 17th century and further remodelling around 1840. The walls are rendered cob, and the roofs are covered with dry slate. The building features a large brick axial stack, a rear lateral stack, and a brick chimney over a large external breast to the higher gable end (right), projecting with two round ovens. Originally a three-room plan with a through-passage and open hall, the hall was floored and a stack inserted at the lower end in the late 16th or early 17th century, backing onto the through-passage. The lower end was likely rebuilt in 1623 as a parlour and remodelled again around 1840 when stairs were inserted into the through-passage and a rear wing was added. The two-storey south-east front has an irregular arrangement of six C19 casement windows. The left bay at ground floor level has plain eaves, while the main part features a deeply coved and moulded plaster eaves cornice. A top-glazed door is located in the left bay, a wide four-light hall window is positioned to the right of the middle, and a further entrance with a top-glazed door is to the right, accompanied by two wide windows. The interior was remodelled around 1840, retaining good, intact joinery from that period. The presence of an internal jetty at the lower end of the hall is indicated by a rounded joist end in the rear passage, which was originally part of the hall. Plastered hall ceiling beams and a partition to the inner room potentially conceal a timber screen. The lower room contains a fine splayed fireplace with ogee mouldings and stepped stops to Thorverton stone jambs and an oak lintel, dated 1623 with the initials P.P. It also has an ashlar fireback. The fireplace surround is from the 16th century and has been cut down; the ceiling beams are similarly affected. A hall cross beam has ovolo and cavetto moulding, with stepped and moulded stops. A fireplace to the upper end with a chamfered lintel has two ovens, one very large with an arched doorway, and is likely from the 17th century. The roof over the main range is from the early 19th century, while the king post roof over the rear wing is probably later in the 19th century. A reused smoke-blackened rafter is visible in the roof space of a first floor room.