Court Farmhouse

Court Farmhouse, Bishops Tawton

This farmhouse incorporates the remains of a palace belonging to the Bishop of Exeter. It dates from the 15th century, with possibly some earlier fabric, but was heavily remodelled in the late 18th century. The building is constructed of random stone rubble with ashlar dressings and has a slate roof of two pitches, hipped at the left end and half-hipped at the right end.

The house is of two storeys, with the early features concentrated at the two-storeyed south service end and through-passage. A virtual rebuilding and widening of the house in the late 18th century above the through-passage has obscured the original plan, which now comprises a single principal room on each side of the through-passage. The late 18th century additions include Gothick towers at all corners except the north-east.

The chimneys are notable: a large lateral stack to the west side with slated off-sets and a tall brick shaft, a brick stack at the right end, a ridge stack, and two other off-centre stacks.

On the east side, a tower to the south-east corner features a brick crenellated parapet with a blind roundel above a blocked window with timber lintels. Near the base is a small two-paned casement with a probably reset nowy-arched stone lintel. Above this are two two-light casements, the left with three panes per light, and a two-over-two sash with timber lintel. A two-storey porch with plain gabled bargeboards stands to the right, with a 20th-century window and doorway. A slated lean-to roof covers a brick kitchen extension of one-and-a-half storeys. Above this is a gabled dormer with carved bargeboards sitting above three 20th-century windows, the central one bearing a slate dripmould. A rounded bread oven to the north side has a slate capping.

The west side features towers at each corner with brick crenellated parapets and blind windows to false top stages above four-centred arched openings with transomed casements in diamond leaded cames and dressed stone voussoirs. The left tower sits on the dairy roof with a semi-circular brick arch infilled with brick to the rear and includes a half-glazed door with a small niche above. Between the two towers, the two left bays of four break forward, with a 20th-century conservatory enclosing a 19th-century eight-over-eight sash to the left of French windows.

A single-storey dairy extension with slate roof projects to the north with a plank door. Its rear wall, extending from the left side tower, incorporates an early doorway and window opening, the doorway with an ashlar chamfered surround to the left of a partially blocked window with hoodmould and label stops. These were probably reset during the late 18th-century rebuild and are now enclosed in a greenhouse. Two 18th-century blind quatrefoil loops appear above.

The south side towers have blind roundels above tall narrow openings, infilled to the left, with a four-paned light to the right. These flank a three-light cavetto mullion window with cusped heads and diamond leaded cames. An octofoil opening set in a small stone panel sits above.

The interior features heavy chamfered and stopped beams to the service end, with a former entry from the through-passage via a possibly 15th-century pointed arched doorway with a stone chamfered surround, now blocked. Above is a barrel vaulted ceiling to a large chamber with a single wooden boss depicting a dove and olive branch, which conceals two large trusses above with short curved feet resting on timber wall plates. Cranked collars are morticed into the soffits, with two tiers of threaded purlins and an added tier of butt-jointed purlins near the base. There is no smoke-blackening. The remaining roof structure dates from the 18th-century rebuild with later patching.