Goulds Leary Farmhouse

Goulds Leary Farmhouse is a farmhouse, principally dating to the early 17th century, with extensions added in the 18th century and the lower right end partially rebuilt in the 19th century. Further alterations occurred around 1970. The construction is of stone rubble and rendered cob, with some brick at the right end. The roof is thatched, hipped at the left end and gable-ended to the right. It has an axial brick stack backing onto the passage and a brick shaft to a rebuilt stone rubble stack with brick dressings and a projecting bread oven at the right end.

The original plan was likely a two-room and cross-passage arrangement, with a hall to the left heated by an axial stack that backed onto the cross-passage. An internal winder staircase, formerly located in the cross-passage near the entrance doorway, was removed in the 20th century and replaced by a staircase running alongside the lower wall of the cross-passage, incorporating part of the lower end. The gable end wall of this area was rebuilt in the 19th century, and the stack may date to that time. The hall was divided in the 20th century by a partition creating a small inner room, formerly used as a fowl house. However, the evenly spaced ceiling beams and lack of original morticing suggest this partition was a later addition. A later, probably 18th-century, stable block with a loft above was incorporated into the farmhouse, which is evidenced by the straight joint to the front wall and a solid wall rising to the roof apex between the stables and the hall. A dairy extension is located at the rear.

The farmhouse is two storeys high with a five-window front. It contains late 19th and early 20th century two and three-light casement windows. A thatched lean-to porch covers the entrance. The interior retains a 17th-century ovolo-moulded inner door surround. The hall fireplace has roughly dressed stone jambs, a cloam bread oven, and a roughly chamfered lintel with run-out stops. There are hollow-step stopped, chamfered cross ceiling beams and bressumers throughout. The thick cob partition between the cross-passage and the lower end has a scroll-stopped bressumer and ceiling beam, suggesting the latter may have been rebuilt in the mid to late 17th century. A double rebated ovolo-moulded fireplace lintel, brought from Hele Manor, Barnstaple, was reset in the 20th century. The roof trusses are entirely of the 18th or early 19th century, with pegged trusses and lapped collars, and show no signs of smoke-blackening.