Broomhouse Broomhouse Farmhouse

Broomhouse and Broomhouse Farmhouse

This is a house now divided into two dwellings. It has late medieval origins and was remodelled in the 17th century and again in the early to mid-19th century, when it was also extended at the west end. The building is whitewashed and plastered, probably built of cob on stone rubble footings, with a stone rubble outshut. The roof is thatched to the front of the ridge and slated to the rear. There are end stacks and a rear lateral stack with handmade brick shafts to Broomhouse, an end stack to Broomhouse Farmhouse, and two stacks to the outshut, all projecting through the roof.

The building presents as a south-facing range five rooms wide, with a two-storey rear outshut extending the full length. The eastern part of the range, now Broomhouse, forms the early core. This originated as a late medieval open hall house, of which one smoke-stained roof truss survives, its apex approximately two metres below the present ridge. The house was likely floored in the 17th century, though little evidence from this period remains. The position of the three right-hand stacks suggests a three-room plan in the 17th century, with the lower end to the right. The present entrance to Broomhouse may occupy the site of the original 17th-century entrance and faces a straight-run stair with circa mid-17th century newel posts. The roof structure over the three right-hand rooms is very late 17th or 18th century. The house was presumably raised at this date, and the height of the first floor may have been raised as well, as there is no exposed 17th-century carpentry to the ground floor ceilings. Some 18th-century panelling upstairs and a china cupboard in the centre ground floor room indicate refurbishment at this date. This was followed by an early 19th-century remodelling which retained the old ground plan but created a garden front with French windows and a verandah. The date of the service outshut is difficult to establish but it may be early 19th century, although it perhaps incorporates an earlier outshut belonging to the west property. Broomhouse Farmhouse is more difficult to interpret; it may have originated as a late 17th or 18th-century addition to Broomhouse, with the extreme left-hand (west end) room said to be a 19th-century extension. The outshut is cut back into the slope of the land with steps down to an alleyway serving the rear doors, the alleyway protected by 19th-century iron railings.

An underground cellar extends north from the rear of Broomhouse, running under the lane to the farm to the east.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical 2:6 window front. Broomhouse, to the left, is symmetrical with a central thatched porch containing a half-glazed 19th or early 20th-century front door. The windows are three-light casements, probably 20th-century, with glazing bars. The south elevation of Broomhouse to the right has a nine-bay verandah, probably a 20th-century reconstruction of a 19th-century verandah, retaining 19th-century pitched stone flooring. A 20th-century front door stands to the right of centre, flanked by two-light small-pane 19th-century casements. To the left are two early 19th-century French windows with glazing bars, with a similar window to the right. Two- and three-light small-pane 20th-century casements appear to the first floor, executed as 20th-century copies of 19th-century windows. The rear elevation retains a set of first-floor four-over-eight pane 19th-century sashes to the outshut, 19th-century railings above the rear alleyway, and a good late 19th-century gate to the garden at the east end of the range. At the west end of the range the rear wall is canted inwards.

Internally, Broomhouse Farmhouse has been modernized, retaining a large, probably 19th-century open fireplace at the left (west) end. Broomhouse retains 17th-century bobbin-turned newel posts at the top of the straight-run stair. A very pretty 18th-century china cupboard in the centre room has shaped shelves and a shell hood. 18th-century fielded panelling survives to the window embrasure on the first floor right. The two left-hand ground floor rooms have 19th-century plaster cornices, and a mid-19th-century chimney-piece on the first floor is complete with iron grate.

The roof contains the apex of one smoke-stained medieval truss visible in the roofspace to the left of the centre of Broomhouse. The principal rafters are mortised at the apex and the ridge, which is missing, was diagonally set. The other trusses over Broomhouse are collar rafter, with collars butted onto the principals which are pegged at the apex; the date is probably late 17th or 18th century. One of the trusses may be fixed on to the foot of a second medieval truss as a curved foot is visible below the ceiling, plastered over. The outshut roof is probably early 19th century. The roof over Broomhouse was not inspected. The cellar below the lane north of Broomhouse has a slate floor and water runnel, consisting of one cell and a narrow winding tunnel open at both ends.

This is an unusually large traditional house, evidently of gentry quality by the mid-19th century. White's Devon (1850) describes it as the "pleasant seat" of J.G. Pearse Esq., solicitor, who owned an estate in the parish. In 1879 it was lived in by George Bush, described as a civil engineer and tenant of the Reverend J.G. Pearce.