Outbuilding At Cadeleigh Court

Outbuilding at Cadeleigh Court

This outbuilding, now in use as a house, dates from around 1700, possibly representing a remodelling of an earlier building. It is constructed from dressed local sandstone brought to course with ashlar dressings, beneath a corrugated iron roof hipped at the ends. The building features a projecting rear lateral stack with a truncated shaft, a left end stack, and two axial stacks with dismantled shafts.

The plan comprises a long single-depth range four rooms wide on a west-east axis, built on a sloping site. Consequently, the south elevation stands taller than the north. The internal layout presents interpretive challenges, as none of the interior partitions is certainly original and the position of the original doorway or doorways remains unclear. The left (east) end room contains what appears to be a kitchen fireplace of 17th-century date, while the second room from the left, heated by the lateral stack on the south wall, may have been the hall. The stack of the right (west) end room projects into the putative hall and is probably a subsequent modification. The partition walls of the first room from the left appear to date to the 19th century, including a former axial stack. No part of the original roof survives, and it is uncertain whether any of the south side openings are original.

The north elevation features high-quality openings of around 1700 with flat ashlar masonry arches. The building rises to two storeys, with an asymmetrical north elevation that may once have been symmetrical at ground floor level. The north side has thirteen ground floor openings and eleven first floor openings. The west end has been partly rebuilt at first floor level and has a slightly higher roofline. All thirteen ground floor openings possess flat ashlar masonry arches. The first bays from left and right contain doorways; the fifth bay from the east is also a doorway but may originally have been a window. It has been suggested that the windows in the third bays from left and right may have been doorways, which would have created a symmetrical front. The central window is crowned with a somewhat decayed coat of arms, possibly showing Leach impaling Turberville, which records the second marriage of the first Sir Simon Leach, though it has alternatively been interpreted as Leach impaling Grenville. Five of the ground floor windows retain wooden frames with mullions. The first floor openings have plain wood or stone lintels, some with probably enlarged embrasures.

The south elevation displays a truncated ashlar masonry lateral stack and six openings of various sizes, including what is probably a modern doorway at ground floor level, positioned two metres above the farmyard level to the south.

Internally, the fireplace in the left (east) room has ashlar masonry jambs and a scroll-stopped lintel. A rounded recess adjacent to the stack suggests the former position of a staircase. There is no internal access between this room and the rest of the range. The lateral stack fireplace is blocked and the lintel has been removed, though the chamfered jambs remain visible. The right (west) room's axial stack projects into the putative hall, featuring chamfered jambs and a relieving arch. The first room from the left contains an 18th- or 19th-century fireplace set within a partition wall that is not bonded to the building's external walls, and a circa straight stair connects this room to the putative hall.

This house presents an intriguing and complex building history on an archaeologically important site close to two small earthwork enclosures. In connection with the earthworks, the house provides significant evidence in understanding the history of Cadeleigh Manor. Both the earthworks and the building have been discussed in detail by R. J. Silvester and I. J. Richardson. Silvester and Richardson have suggested the possibility that the building could be a refronting by Sir Simon Leach (died 1708) of an earlier house built by his great-grandfather, Sir Simon Leach (died 1637), and may have functioned as an agent's or farm manager's house for Cadeleigh Manor.