Tillerton Farmhouse

Farmhouse. It probably originated in the early 16th century, with improvements and extensions in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and some 18th and 19th century modernisations. The walls are plastered cob on rubble footings; the stacks are stone and cob with 19th-century brick tops, and the roof is thatched with wheat reed. It is a long, low, two-storey building, with the upper floor largely within the roof space. Originally, it had a three-room-and-through-passage plan with a small inner room to the north-west and a long service end, the latter a result of one or two extensions. A large lateral stack projects to the front of the hall, with gable end stacks also present. The rear of the passage is now occupied by a 19th-century winder stair, blocking the original back door. The front is irregular, with the hall stack to the left of the centre, and the passage door immediately to the right. To the left are two-light casements with glazing bars to the hall, inner room, and chamber over the hall, the latter rising into the eaves. To the right is a horizontal sliding sash at the extreme right end, a small window to the right of the front door, and a single first-floor three-light casement rising into the eaves. Five pigeon-holes with slate landings are cut into the cob under the eaves at the left end. The interior is well-preserved. The hall has an oak plank and muntin screen with a moulded head beam at the upper end, and the inner chamber is jettied over a large framed crosswall on a moulded bressumer, supported on (possibly later) curving oak brackets. Remains of an oak plank-and-muntin screen also exist at the lower end. A large granite fireplace with an ovolo-moulded oak lintel is in the front wall; the small window in the left corner appears to be part of a 19th-century brick refurbishment. The roof is a two-bay structure carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses. Early 17th-century flooring has double ovolo-moulded crossbeams with scroll stops carved as leaves. A contemporary cornice of carved wood, with paired leaf decoration flanked by rosettes, is applied to the chimney breast. A 20th-century rear hall window reuses an early 17th-century iron casement with square leaded panes and a shaped iron catch. The service end roof is inaccessible, but three exposed crossbeams are visible on the ground floor; the inner two have deep chamfers with early 17th-century stops. In the 18th century, the service end was apparently extended by one bay, with a plain finished cross beam and a contemporary end fireplace, now blocked. An 18th-century rearrangement apparently included a small dairy off the passage, and blocked remains of a door to the front (now including a small window) and a blocked square-sectioned mullion window to the rear, also date from that period. Early features remain hidden in the inner room. This is a fine, largely unmodernised example of a multi-phase Devon farmhouse.