Slew House, Shown As Slough On The Os Map

Slew House, shown as Slough on the OS map, is a former farmhouse of late medieval origins with late 18th-century and early 19th-century remodelling. It is constructed of rendered cob on stone rubble footings, with a slate roof to the front of the ridge and corrugated asbestos to the rear (formerly thatched). The building is gabled at the ends with end stacks and an axial stack; a projecting rear lateral stack has a 19th-century brick shaft.

The house follows an approximately T-shaped plan consisting of a single-depth south-facing main range four rooms wide, with one-room plan wings adjoining at the front and rear left (west). The building originated as a late medieval open hall which extended from the left (west) end of the main range for at least three bays. Refurbishment and remodelling in the 18th and 19th centuries has obscured any visible evidence of the 17th century, making the date at which the open hall was floored conjectural. Although the present plan includes two entrances on the south side, both leading into passages with stairs, it is unclear whether either corresponds to a late 16th or 17th-century through or cross passage.

The roof over the left (west) end room appears to have been rebuilt and raised in the 18th century, reusing some smoke-blackened medieval timbers. A Georgian recess and two-panel doors indicate considerable refurbishment at this date, with the left-hand room probably functioning as the kitchen. The two left-hand wings, front and rear, are probably early 19th-century additions: a breakfast or morning room to the front and a large dairy to the rear. A heated service room at the extreme right (east) end of the range is probably a 19th-century addition, with access to the kitchen and dairy via the rear outshut, which has since been divided into smaller rooms.

Externally, the house is two storeys with an asymmetrical six-bay front featuring two 20th-century doors: one into a passage containing the stair to the left of centre, and one into a passage adjacent to a second stair to the right of centre. Between these doors are two early 19th-century French windows with margin glazing. The two windows on the inner return of the front left wing and two first-floor and one ground-floor window at the left end of the main range are 19th-century timber sashes; all other windows are 20th-century timber casements.

Internally, the left-hand room has an open fireplace with a timber lintel; the chamfer and stops date to the 1980s. The parlour, to the right of the kitchen, has a Georgian segmental arched wall recess. A good set of 18th-century two-panel doors survives, including a wide door at the rear of the right-hand passage.

The roof retains three bays of a late medieval smoke-blackened roof, including two main trusses with a diagonally-set ridge, mortised collars, and trenched purlins. The roof formerly extended over the left-hand bay but was rebuilt in the 18th century, reusing medieval smoke-blackened purlins and some rafters and battens. The smoke-blackened roof does not extend over the second room from the left; the end of the roof was not inspected at the time of survey, and it remains unclear whether it originally extended further east. An unexplained feature is a heavily sooted section of large-scantling timber pegged onto the back of the rafters to the rear of the ridge, which may have been connected with smoke escape during the open hall phase.

The kitchen range from Slew House is now in the South Molton museum.