Indicknowle Farmhouse

Indicknowle Farmhouse is a listed 2-storey farmhouse at Berrynarbor, probably dating to 1716 by its date plaque, with a significant 19th-century rear extension.

The main structure is built of roughly dressed unrendered stone rubble beneath a slate roof with gable ends. The rear lateral hall stack, also of unrendered stone rubble with a drip mould, is now enclosed by the rear extension. An ivy-clad stone rubble stack stands at the left gable end, and an axial unrendered stone rubble stack runs towards the right end of the main range. The rear extension and a lower service range at the left end of the main range are roofed in asbestos slate.

The plan is of considerable interest. The main range contains a through-passage housing a staircase, with a heated service room to the left (within a range of lower ridge level) and a hall to the right, heated by the rear lateral stack. Solid walls rise to the roof apex on both sides of the cross-passage and to the upper end of the hall. Beyond the hall, now without a connecting doorway, is a second through-passage leading to a heated inner room to the right (heated by the axial stack, with a staircase at the rear beside it) and an additional unheated service room at the right end. As recorded in January 1986, the entire range to the right of the hall was unoccupied. A timber-frame partition with stone rubble infilling on the right-hand side of the second through-passage appears to be a later, probably 19th-century insertion; originally there may have been a connecting doorway from the hall directly into the heated inner room. The insertion of this partition and blocking of the doorway likely accompanied division of the house into two occupied units. This prompted the addition of a large gable-ended 2-storey service range to the rear of the main range, providing separate kitchens for each unit. The right-hand unit was occupied within living memory as a separate cottage for the housemaid, and was subsequently used for housing stock.

The front elevation presents a 3-window range with half-gabled dormers fitted with bargeboards and 19th-century 2-light casements of 6 panes per light. A date plaque reading 1716 appears above the central window. The hall has two 16-paned sashes, the left one with horns. A 20th-century porch with a slated gabled roof and plank door with small-paned overlight serves the left-hand through-passage. The front of the lower service range at the left end is blind. At the right end are 3 blocked windows above 2 plank doors, with no ground-floor windows lighting these two rooms from the front.

Internally, the hall features a slightly cambered stone arch instead of the more usual timber lintel. A creamery niche is positioned to the right. The ceiling is relatively high with joists only—no ceiling beams—probably originally intended to receive plaster but now exposed. A 4-panelled door with H-L hinges connects the hall to the left-hand through-passage. The fireplace of the left-hand service room is blocked, but a bread oven projects into the rear service range, which has a separate fireplace at its inner end containing 2 bread ovens. The inner room of the right-hand unit has a fireplace lintel with ovolo moulding and unusual enriched step stops (comparable to Brinscott Farmhouse and Hill Barton, both at Berrynarbor). The ceiling here is similar to that of the hall. A blocked doorway, now functioning as a cupboard, connects to the unheated room at the right end.

The original roof structure of the main range survives with straight principals to the trusses pegged at the apex, two tiers of slightly trenched purlins, and halved and lapped collars. There is no evidence of smoke-blackening.