Converted animal house approximately 160 metres west of Lower Filleigh Farmhouse

This is a converted animal house and agricultural store, originally a farmhouse, dating back to the 16th century, with substantial alterations in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was abandoned as a dwelling and re-roofed in the 20th century, situated approximately 160 metres west of Lower Filleigh Farmhouse. The building is constructed of cob on rubble footings, with rubble stacks, though the chimney shafts have been removed, and now has a corrugated iron roof.

Originally, the house had a three-room-and-through-passage plan, facing east, with a former inner room at the south end. A barn now occupies the north end, incorporating the former service end room, and the wall between the two has been demolished. There’s an end stack to the former inner room, and a lateral stack with a newel stair turret projecting to the front of the former hall. A 19th-century cartshed adjoins the right end. The main block is two storeys high and has an irregular, altered three-window front featuring first-floor loading hatches and 20th-century doors to all ground-floor rooms. The roof is gabled, extending over the stacks, while the catshed has a lower, hipped roof with a blind cob wall to the front.

The interior retains good features, despite the 20th-century roof replacement. Cob crosswalls are found on the lower side of the passage and upper end of the hall. The inner room has a 16th-century common joist ceiling and a 17th-century stone rubble fireplace with a soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped oak lintel, now blocked. A nearby 16th-century oak doorframe, now square-headed but with a chamfered surround following an original two-centred arch, leads to the hall. The hall’s ceiling consists of three bays supported by mid-to-late 16th-century crossbeams with double ovolo mouldings and step stops. A large volcanic stone fireplace, featuring an oak lintel with a broad chamfer and pyramid stops, includes a disused rear oven, both dating from the mid-to-late 16th century. A contemporary stone newel stair with oak treads is positioned alongside the fireplace. A small, plain 16th-century oak window with two narrow, round-headed lights is also present in the rear wall; its sill has been enlarged to incorporate an oak-board lining for what is likely a 17th-century cupboard. Remains of a mid-to-late 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen, with chamfered and step-stopped muntins, are visible between the hall and passage. 20th-century doors now mark both ends of the passage, although a 16th-century segmental-headed oak doorway lies on the passage floor. A 16th-century oak doorway with an intact two-centred arch and chamfered surround connects the passage to the service end. The positions of the former end walls are indicated by rough wall stubs on either side of the present barn. A post of one jointed cruck truss is visible on the first floor.