Little Burne Farmhouse

SS 90 NE BICKLEIGH 6/7 Little Burne Farmhouse 5.4.66 II Farmhouse. Circa mid C17, alterations of the 1960s. Rendered cob on stone rubble footings; concrete tile roof (formerly thatched); axial stack and projecting end stacks, shaft of left end stack dismantled. Plan: 3 room and through passage plan, the lower end to the left, the hall heated from a stack backing on to the passage and a inner room. rear right outshut, a later addition, with a catslide roof. The position of the original stair is uncertain, but may have been adjacent to the lower end stack (rounded corner), the recess now partly filled by a very large bread oven. Most of the roof trusses are 1960s and date from the period when the thatch was replaced with tile, the remaining pre C20 trusses have straight principals suggesting that the roof may have been replaced in the C18 or C19. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4 window front with a C20 front door to the passage to let of centre with a gabled porch canopy. Prior to the 1960s there was an additional doorway into the right hand (inner) room. C20 casements, mostly metal frame. The rear elevation, facing the road, has a half-glazed door to the passage and 2 small timber first floor windows. Interior: The hall has 1 cross beam and 2 half beams, elaborately-moulded with the stops lost in the wall plaster; C20 grate possibly concealing earlier features. The passage has a chamfered step-stopped half beam and a plank and muntin oak screen to the lower end with chamfered step-stopped muntins. The lower end room is very complete with a chamfered step-stopped cross beam, exposed joists and a fireplace that is said to be intact behind later plaster. Little Burne was probably the site of the accidental death of Edward Gibb (s)?., commemorated by a headstone in the churchyard (q.v.). Photographs in the possession of the owner taken by A. W. Everett in 1961 show former ornamental plasterwork in the room above the C17 hall. 2 motifs with floral designs and armorial bearings on the wall included the initials K. W. H. and K. G. V. H.

Listing NGR: SS9556207150