Lower Sheepsbyre

CHULMLEIGH SS 71 NW 4/21 Lower Sheepsbyre GV II

Farmhouse. Early to mid C17 but possibly earlier fabric concealed, with C19 alterations. Rendered stone rubble and some cob towards right end. Hipped thatch roof. Brick stack at left end and tall rendered shaft to rear lateral hall stack with offsets and bread oven projection. Plan: 3-room and cross-passage plan with lower end to left and staircase filling the passage, running from back to front. The inner room end has been divided axially into 2 rooms with dairy at front and former pumphouse at rear; it appears always to have been unheated. The parlour may always therefore have been at the left, lower end. Outshut to rear right end. Exterior: 2 storeys. 4-window range. C20 fenestration, all 3-light casements. Ground floor inner room end is blind. Plank door the 2 upper panels glazed to through-passage doorway. 3-light casement to upper storey at right end with rectangular leaded lights. Interior: hall has 2 cross ceiling beams with rich roll-hollow-ogee mouldings. Hall fireplace has C19 lintel concealing original, with bread oven on left side and seat recess on right side. Thin partitions to each side of passage and at upper end of hall. The original c17 plank and muntin screen at the upper end of the hall has been reused as the axial partition dividing the inner room end, with 1 section 4 planks wide and another 2 planks wide, the latter incorporating a low doorway, now blocked. The muntins and doorway are ovolo moulded on the dairy side, stopped about ½ metre from the sill, with peg-holes suggesting a former integral hall bench, with straight chamfers on the pump-house side. C19 staircase and joinery largely intact. Wood quality early C19 roof structure with 6 King post trusses, the king posts dovetailed into the tie beams and apexes, with raking struts no sign of smoke-blackening. Lower and Higher Sheepsbyre (q.v.) are an interesting pair of closely situated early farmhouses, both south facing and with adjacent front farm courtyards, both of which retain relatively unspoilt ranges of farm buildings.

Listing NGR: SS7281915797