South Stoodleigh Farmhouse Including Attached Outbuildings To Rear

Farmhouse, including attached outbuildings to the rear. The core of the farmhouse may date back to the 17th century, but it was substantially remodelled in 1731, with the outbuildings added in the 19th century. The front facade is of dressed stone, while the rest of the building is of stone rubble. It has a hipped slate roof with stacks along the central valley, and a continuous cavetto moulded stone cornice.

The interior plan is virtually square and double in depth, with two principal heated rooms of unequal size facing the front. Access is direct to the larger room on the right. A rear door in this room provides entry to service rooms at the back: the kitchen to the left and the dairy to the right, separated by the main staircase, which enters the front right-hand room between the rear access doorway and the fireplace. A secondary staircase runs parallel to the main staircase, rising from back to front. The unusual plan suggests a possible remodelled 17th-century core consisting of a single-depth plan with principal rooms on either side of a central passage.

L-shaped outbuildings form a three-sided rear courtyard. The farmhouse is two storeys high and has five bays, arranged symmetrically. It has twelve-paned, horned sash windows in flush timber sash boxes. The central door has a rectangular overlight.

The interior contains largely original 18th-century joinery, including six- and two-panelled doors and panelled shutters. The principal room on the right features a large moulded plasterwork ceiling oval and a moulded cornice. A contemporary flat-arched chimneypiece displays a central heraldic shield with the initials "W G" (William and Grace Buckingham) and the date B 1731. The room to the left has moulded plasterwork ceiling consisting of a large quatrefoil with shaped corner panels and a moulded dentilled cornice, which may be slightly earlier, possibly dating to around 1700, suggesting the 1731 date refers to the remodel. The enclosed dog-leg staircase has low fielded dado panelling on each side, ramped at the ends of each flight. The secondary staircase is also intact, with thin turned balusters to the upper flights. The roof consists of two parallel sections, each with four 18th-century trusses. The dairy fittings remain intact.

West Buckland School was founded here in 1858 before relocating to its present site in 1861, a detail recorded on the gatepiers. The house is of considerable interest and is notable for retaining so many 18th-century features. Some dairy fittings remain; the rear outbuildings have corrugated asbestos roofs, with the dairy projecting into this range.