Doddiscombe Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Built around the early 17th century, with alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The walls are rendered stone rubble, with some cob at the west end; the main range has a tiled roof, gabled at the ends, while a rear wing is slated. There are axial stacks, a right-end stack, and a projecting rear lateral stack. The plan is an interesting and unusual "T" shape.

The interior, recorded by Charles Hulland in 1976, comprises three rooms and a through passage, with a lower end to the left and an axial stack at the higher end of the hall. The staircase rises axially to the rear of the hall and is located externally to the main range, but within the rear wing, which was previously divided into a kitchen and a dairy. A cross passage provides access to the former kitchen. An additional single-room plan is at the left end of the range, with a cider house behind it, set at right angles. The thatch was replaced with tiles in the 1960s.

The front elevation is asymmetrical, with six windows across two storeys. A gabled porch is positioned to the left of the central cross passage, and a 20th-century door on the right-hand side leads directly into the inner room. The first floor has six 2-light 20th-century casement windows, with two panes per light. There are four similar 3-light ground floor casements. Leadlight windows mentioned in an earlier list description have been removed.

The inner room and hall have deeply-chamfered step-stopped cross beams, and the lower end room has a chamfered beam. The old kitchen retains an open fireplace with a bread oven and plain 18th or 19th-century axial beams, while the dairy has a chamfered step-stopped axial beam. The former cider house also features chamfered step-stopped cross beams and exposed joists. Hulland’s records indicate three pairs of jointed cruck trusses over the hall and lower end, although the apex was not inspected, and they may be medieval. This is a substantial early 17th-century house with an unusual plan and further features of interest may be concealed. A survey record by Charles Hulland, dated 1976, including an unscaled ground plan, is deposited in the West Country Studies Library.