South Yeo Farmhouse And Cottage

South Yeo Farmhouse and Cottage is a farmhouse of exceptional architectural and historical importance, dating from the early 16th century with significant later developments spanning the 16th, 17th, and 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of plastered cob on rubble footings, with rubble chimneys fitted with plastered brick shafts and an asbestos slate roof. The house originally comprised a 3-room-and-through-passage plan, built down a south-facing slope with a service room at the lower east end. A 1-room extension was added in the early 17th century, followed by an early 20th-century wing projecting forward from this extension. The building now stands 2 storeys throughout.

The irregular front elevation displays three windows, supplemented by a 20th-century bay extension to the hall and a 20th-century glass-roofed conservatory in front of the inner room. The first-floor windows to the left of the stair turret and those at the right end feature late 17th and early 18th-century frames: these are 3-light flat-faced mullion windows with shallow internal chamfers on the first floor and shallow ogee-mouldings on the ground floor right. They contain iron casements and rectangular panes of thin leaded glass; the ground floor right window includes iron stanchions. The stair turret contains a small 17th-century oak 2-light window with a chamfered mullion. A 20th-century slate-roofed porch with slate roof stands to the right of the stair turret.

The north (rear) elevation shows irregular and varied fenestration. A 3-light late 17th and early 18th-century flat-faced mullion window with leaded glass appears here. The inner room window right of centre is an early 17th-century oak 3-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions, vertical iron bars, and rectangular panes of leaded glass. A passage door left of the stack is fitted with a 20th-century gabled slate-roofed porch with trellis sides. Another door at the right end to the extension has a slate-roofed porch.

The interior reveals a complex and well-documented structural sequence. The oldest element is an early 16th-century 2-bay roof over the hall, carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with evidence of single sets of windbraces (one survives on the rear side). This section remains heavily smoke-blackened from an open-hearth fire.

At the passage end of the hall stands a 16th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen, chamfered on both sides with step stops, which carries a passage chamber jettying into the hall. The lower end parlour retains the remains of a late 16th and early 17th-century fireplace constructed of volcanic ashlar with ogee-moulded jambs and roll stops, though the lintel was replaced during a mid-17th-century refurbishment. This refurbishment introduced an oak lintel chamfered with scroll stops, and a similar finish to the end beam and oak plank-and-muntin screen to the passage. A mid-17th-century fireplace appears on the first floor, accompanied by a contemporary A-frame roof truss with pegged lap-jointed collar and dovetail halving.

Another mid-17th-century oak plank-and-muntin screen stands at the upper end of the hall, with scroll stops positioned high enough to accommodate a bench. The hall was floored at approximately the same time with moulded axial and two half-beams, all featuring chamfer step stops. The large hall fireplace is now blocked by a superior mid-19th-century chimney piece and cast-iron grate, though a cupboard to the right exposes the end of a lintel chamfered with straight cut stops, indicating an intact 17th-century fireplace beneath.

The inner room contains an early to mid-17th-century chamfered and scroll-stopped axial beam. A corridor was constructed at this time along the back of the inner room, connecting the hall to the extension and suggesting the room's use as a dairy or store. Doorframes from the corridor to the room and from the corridor to the extension are scroll-stopped. The extension itself displays early to mid-17th-century features including two chamfered crossbeams with unusual stepped lozenge stops, and a winder stair in the front wall with a crank-headed oak door frame to the ground floor and a low segmental-headed doorframe to the first floor. The extension fireplace is blocked and its roof was apparently replaced in the late 17th or 18th century.

South Yeo Farmhouse and Cottage is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a typical multi-phase Devon farmhouse, representing the evolution of domestic building practices across three centuries of continuous occupation and adaptation.