East Avercombe Farmhouse

East Avercombe Farmhouse is a circa mid-17th century farmhouse, with significant alterations and modernization in the circa mid-to-late 19th century. The construction is whitewashed rendered stone, with a partially cob rear right wing, covered by a slate roof with gabled ends and three front gables. It has end stacks, the left-hand stack with a stone shaft, and a projecting front lateral stack with a stone and brick shaft.

The house follows an overall ‘L’ shaped plan. The north-facing main range is a three-room arrangement with a cross passage. The lower end to the right likely served as a kitchen, featuring a bread oven near the stack. In the 19th century, the house was re-roofed, re-windowed, and partly remodelled. A straight-run stair was added in a lean-to behind the centre room, running parallel to the south wall with access from the rear of the passage. A rear right dairy wing, now used as a kitchen, is set at right angles to the lower end, and may also be 19th century. It appears to link the main range to an earlier, possibly 18th century cob agricultural building that was adapted as a wash-house and back kitchen.

The two-storey front has an asymmetrical four-window facade with three gables, all featuring 19th-century bargeboards of different designs. A projecting stack is flanked by a hall bay to the left and a lean-to porch to the right, providing access to the through passage via a plank front door with a 19th-century glazed overlight and glazed side panels. The windows are likely late 19th-century paired 2-pane sash windows. An attractive 19th-century cast iron fixed window with Gothic quatrefoils and some stained glass is located in the left end of the rear stair projection.

The 17th-century hall retains two good, richly-moulded crossbeams with run-out stops, and an open fireplace with a chamfered scroll-stopped lintel. The inner room contains a possibly 20th-century girder or beam, axially placed and boxed-in. The lower end room has a plain crossbeam; the fireplace is blocked but may retain a 17th-century lintel and is said to have a bread oven. The apex of the roof is not visible, but is said to be 19th-century over the main range. The roof of the former wash-house and back kitchen is probably early 19th century. The house presents an attractive combination of 17th-century origins and 19th-century refashioning. Records relating to the house are held within the South Molton Archive, held at South Molton Library.