South Hayne Farmhouse

South Hayne Farmhouse is a farmhouse, probably dating from the early 17th century, with a datestone of 1638 and initials T.B. on the front elevation, though this may have been re-sited or could refer to a remodelling. The building was probably extended at the rear and altered in the 19th century, and was refashioned in the 1970s.

The house is constructed of stone rubble with a slate roof, gabled at the ends. It has end stacks, an axial stack, and a rear left lateral stack, all with 19th-century brick shafts. The plan is unusual for the period. The main range is a single depth, 4 rooms wide with an approximately central entrance leading into a wide passage with a modern stair at the rear. The whole main range appears to be of one build with a consistent roof structure of an unusual design for Devon. The two right-hand rooms, heated from the right end stack and an axial stack backing onto the passage, appear to be parlours and are similar in size. The room to the left of the passage may originally have been unheated, perhaps a dairy (the chimney shaft truncates some of the roof structure), though the chimney may have been rebuilt. The extreme left end room was evidently the kitchen in the 19th century and possibly earlier, with a bread oven and formerly with an internal well and a pump. A rear outshut extends the length of the three right-hand rooms and is probably a 19th-century addition; no evidence of a rear door in the main range was found during renovations in the 1970s. The roofspace was originally floored. Some evidence suggests it was used as a wool loft, possibly with a door and external steps in the right gable end.

The exterior is two storeys with an asymmetrical five-window front with regular fenestration. There is an approximately central 20th-century flat-roofed porch below an early to mid-19th-century two-centred arched Gothick window with intersecting glazing bars. The other windows are tripartite sashes with small panes, dating from the 19th century but with some replacement to the left of the door and 20th-century enlarged copies to the right of the door. The rear elevation has two-light 19th or 20th-century casements.

The interior features both right-hand rooms with 17th-century ovolo-moulded lintels to the fireplaces. The room to the left of the entrance has a plain timber lintel to the lateral stack, while the left-hand room has a 19th-century fireplace with an iron lintel and bread oven. A re-used 19th-century stair replaces another stair in the same position. A 17th-century chamfered, stopped doorframe on the first floor indicates that the first floor axial passage is 17th century, at least in part. 20th-century renovations created openings between the principal rooms and former outshut, and the partition between the two left-hand rooms has been removed.

The roof is of particular significance. Rather than the unusual collar rafter roof design typical of the region, the house has a pegged common rafter roof, with collars dovetailed into the couples which are mortised into tie beams. Around the shaft of the rear lateral stack, the rafters have been cut away and re-supported on posts, appearing to be an alteration rather than part of the original arrangement. There has been some racking of the couples and later support. The roof construction is so rare in the county that it is difficult to date, though a similar use of couples at Holcombe Burnell Barton is probably early 17th century. The design of the roof provides a substantial open space in the attic, interrupted only by the axial stack. The roofspace had a plank floor, which no longer exists, and some surviving fixings suggest it was originally partitioned. A section of cob on the right gable end wall could indicate the position of a former doorway to the attic; a later farmbuilding now adjoins the house at the gable end. It is possible that the roof design indicates a purpose-built wool loft, divided into storage units by low partitions with external access at the right end. Surprisingly little direct architectural evidence of the wool trade survives on Devon farmsteads, considering the importance of the wool industry in the 16th and 17th centuries. If this is a wool loft, its proximity to the market town of South Molton may be significant, and it would represent a most important survival.