Swannaton Farmhouse

Swannaton Farmhouse is a farmhouse that dates from the early 16th century, with improvements made in the late 16th and 17th centuries, and modernised in the 19th century. It is constructed of roughcast cob on rubble footings, with rubble stacks topped with 19th and 20th-century brick, and a slate roof that was formerly thatch. The building is L-shaped, with a gable-ended main block facing south, featuring a 3-room-and-through-passage plan with an inner room at the left (east) end. There is a late 16th to early 17th-century rear block attached to the inner room. The farmhouse has projecting end stacks for the service and inner rooms, a front projecting stack, a lateral stack for the hall, and an end stack for the rear block. It is two storeys high and has an irregular four-window front with 20th-century replacement casements of various sizes, all with glazing bars. A 19th-century six-panel door, with the upper pair glazed, leads to the passage on the right side of the projecting hall stack. The east (service end) stack has an irregular patch high on the outside, which is said to be a 17th-century oval date plaque with a heraldic device, but this is now obscured by roughcast render.

The interior largely reflects the 19th-century modernisation, which has concealed many 16th and 17th-century structural and decorative features. However, some elements suggest a long structural history. The four-bay roof over the hall and inner room is supported by side-pegged jointed cruck trusses, but the extent of smoke-blackening is unclear due to limited access. The inner room features an inserted 16th-century axial beam that is chamfered with run-out stops, supported by an oak post with a jowled head, and a 17th-century moulded plaster cornice. The volcanic ashlar fireplace in the inner room has a 19th-century segmental brick arch that replaces the original lintel. The rear block contains a chamfered and cut-diagonal stopped axial beam and a 17th-century door frame with scroll stops. This farmhouse is well-preserved and has not been modernised significantly. The name Swannaton, meaning the farmstead of swineherds, is mentioned in a charter from 997.