Roliphants Farmhouse

TIVERTON

SS91SE Roliphants Farmhouse 848-1/7/18

II

Farmhouse. C17 or possibly earlier. Rendered cob walls; water-reed thatched roof except for concrete tiles to C20 rear lean-to; outbuilt rubble stack on the left, axial stack right of hall and stack slightly right and rear of this. PLAN: original 3-room plan with lower end (right) probably lengthened later, possibly originally an open hall; the house further lengthened at far right as a cider house but now converted to domestic use. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 4-window range. Early C19 mullioned 3-light casements to 1st floor, C20 3-light casements below. 2 porches with buttressing. INTERIOR: has probable original roof structure with high collars and pegged purlins; light smoke-blackening over the presumed hall, left of centre. There is a similar, but clean roof structure to lower end which is divided from the hall by a chimney wall containing 2 fireplaces. There is a thick wall between the hall and the left-hand room (the presumed parlour) and a there is a cob-nogged timber-framed partition above dividing the hall roof space from the parlour roof which was not inspected. The hall has a C17 fireplace with 2 bread ovens plus a cream oven on its left, and backing onto this is a C19 fireplace serving the lower end, with evidence of smoking chamber to its right. A rounded shape to the wall in front of the hall stack is the presumed evidence for the former C17 staircase. There is a wooden winder staircase on the far right of the lower end based on the old staircase that it replaced. The fireplace to the left-hand room has an ovolo-moulded lintel with stops not visible; hall fireplace has large oak lintel with chamfer or moulding removed. The chamfered oak crossbeam of the hall has tongue stops; the oak axial beam of the room on the left is roughly chamfered. Lower end room has 2 roughly-chamfered elm beams, and on its right is a chamfered oak beam with tongue stops, possibly introduced from somewhere else, but the stops are in the right position for the depth of the room. As with many Devon farmhouses, the plan development has some contradictory evidence and there must remain some conjecture about both the phasing and dating pending more detailed examination of the fabric.

Listing NGR: SS9911014912