Higher Ley Farmhouse and Barn and Shippon Adjoining to East

This is a farmhouse with adjoining barn and shippon, located at North Molton. The house probably dates from around 1500, was altered in the early to mid 17th century, and underwent partial rebuilding and addition probably in the late 18th or early 19th century, with minor alterations probably in the late 19th century. The barn and shippon are 18th century structures, with the shippon probably dating to the early 19th century.

The house has a ground floor of coursed stone rubble and a first floor of rendered cob, partly rebuilt and extended in coursed stone rubble. A projecting square bay features a dressed-sandstone ground floor and rendered cob first floor. The left-hand gable end and rear are rendered. The roof is gable-ended and covered in 20th-century asbestos-slate. Stone square stacks with weatherings support 20th-century red-brick top stages.

The barn is rendered cob on a high coursed stone rubble plinth, with a gable-ended corrugated-iron roof. The shippon has an uncoursed-stone rubble ground floor, a corrugated-iron clad loft above, and a gable-ended corrugated-iron roof.

The house originally followed a three-room and cross-passage plan facing south. It was probably a late Medieval open hall house, with a hall (now the kitchen) featuring a projecting square bay to the front, a cross passage, a service room to the right, and an inner room to the left. The rooms were probably formerly open to the roof, divided by low partitions. In the 17th century, the first floor was inserted, along with an axial stack in the hall backing onto the cross passage and an axial end stack to the inner room. A staircase was inserted at the rear of the cross passage, probably also in the 17th century. The projecting bay probably dates from this 17th-century phase.

A one-roomed addition was added at the left-hand end, probably in the late 18th or early 19th century (evident from the straight joint to the rear). The front wall of the inner-room section was probably also rebuilt at the same time. The eaves were raised at some point, probably in the 18th century. The former cross-passage entrance was blocked, probably in the late 19th century. A door was inserted in the right-hand room, probably at the same time but possibly earlier. The barn and shippon were added at the right-hand end of the house.

The front facade is asymmetrically fenestrated with five windows to the first floor and three to the ground floor. These are mainly 19th-century two-light wooden casements with wooden lintels, except for the left-hand ground-floor window with a red brick flat-arched head, and a 19th-century window inserted in the former cross-passage doorway with a red brick segmental-arched head. The projecting square bay to the hall has a hollow-chamfered plinth and a small ground-floor squint in the right-hand return with deep splayed reveals. The name "W. SLADER" is inscribed on the front wall of the bay at cill level. A 19th-century door has been inserted to the far right with a wooden lintel. There is a small-paned ground-floor casement to the bay. A 19th-century half-glazed door between the first and second windows from the left has a red brick flat-arched head and probably was formerly a window. A 20th-century lean-to porch is present. Evidence of a former left-hand end stack is visible at the rear. The adjoining barn has a pair of boarded doors at the centre with a wooden lintel. The shippon to the far right has a boarded loft door to the left, a ground-floor 19th-century two-light wooden casement off-centre to the right, and two ground-floor boarded doors.

The interior of the former hall, now the kitchen, contains 17th-century deep-chamfered spine beams and wall beams with run-out stops, and moulded (beaded) joists between them. The ground-floor bay has a plastered soffit. A fine 17th-century bench runs along the left-hand wall into the bay, consisting of a panelled back with moulded muntins running up to shaped ends and an elaborate bench-end to the right with two tiers of shaped projections. The cross passage has a matchboarded dado and an old door at the foot of the stair to the rear. The former inner room to the left contains a probably early 19th-century brick segmental-arched fireplace and old floorboards. A cruck truss, probably jointed, is noted at the left-hand end of the hall. The barn has a four-bay roof with trusses consisting of principal rafters and collars, and two pairs of purlins.

The house was formerly built into a bank at the rear, which was later excavated. The first-floor rooms and roof-space were not inspected at the time of survey in September 1987, and there was no access to these areas at that time.