Higher Wampford Farmhouse

Higher Wampford Farmhouse is a farmhouse now divided into two occupations, located in Kings Nympton. The building has a complex development spanning several centuries, with the front wing probably containing early 16th-century fabric, the main range dating to probably the late 17th or early 18th century, and 19th-century alterations throughout.

The structure displays an overall L-shaped plan, comprising a main range of three rooms with cross-passage and a front wing at the left end. The main range is built of unrendered stone rubble with cob to the rear, topped with a thatch roof featuring gable ends. The front wing is constructed of painted stone rubble and cob with an asbestos slate roof, hipped at the front end. The building is heated by multiple stacks: a tall rear lateral stone rubble stack, a brick stack at the right end, a stone rubble stack towards the left end, a capped stone rubble stack at the front end, and a 20th-century brick ridge stack.

The early core of the building is situated at the front end of the wing and represents a former open hall house which originally ran parallel with the main range. Until approximately 1980, two jointed cruck trusses survived, which were smoke-blackened, but the range has now been entirely reroofed following the direction of the wing's roof structure. The front wall of the early core survives, featuring a hall-bay to the left of the former front lateral stack and a probable blocked through-passage doorway to the right. The rear wall and the post of one jointed cruck truss also remain. The hall was floored in the 17th century, probably when a rear kitchen and service wing was added, which would have formed an overall T-shaped plan. The kitchen wing contains floor timbers that appear to have been reused from elsewhere in the farmhouse.

At a late date, either in the 18th or 19th century, the front wing was converted for use as farm buildings, with external stone steps added to service a first-floor granary over the former kitchen wing. The main range is of standard three-room and cross-passage type, with the lower end to the right and a staircase in the cross-passage. Cooking was originally done in the hall but was probably moved in the 19th century to a new kitchen added at the left end of the main range, which is heated by the stack backing onto the former left gable end wall.

Externally, the building presents two storeys. The main range displays a four-window range of 19th-century two-light casements with six panes per light. The ground floor has two 19th-century three-light casements with six panes per light and a 20th-century two-light window with three panes at the left end. Two gabled slate porch canopy roofs with shaped bargeboards and four panelled doors provide entry. The wing features predominantly 20th-century fenestration except for a small four-light ovolo mullion window with pintles for shutters and a long narrow single light window opening with an original shutter to the rear.

The interior of the main range contains 19th-century joinery, principally three-panelled ledged doors with original H-L hinges surviving throughout, and three trusses with straight rough principals and lapped collars. The wing retains two chamfered cross ceiling beams to the original hall with scratch-moulded joists. The kitchen wing to the rear features three chamfered cross beams, probably reused, with old joists, seven of which have roll-mouldings. A section of heavily moulded beam has also been reused as a joist.