Pulworthy Farmhouse And Adjoining Farmbuildings To West

Pulworthy Farmhouse and Adjoining Farmbuildings to West

Pulworthy is a farmhouse with adjoining farmbuildings, located at Molland Lee Lane. The main house dates from circa 1500 and was altered in the early to mid-17th century, when an outshut was probably added. The building was refenestrated and a wing was added in the mid-to late 19th century, with farmbuildings also constructed at that time.

The house is rendered, probably over coursed sandstone rubble and cob. The adjoining farmbuildings are built of uncoursed sandstone rubble with cob below or under the eaves, and feature red brick door heads with stone keystones. The roof is asbestos-slate, formerly thatched. The main house is gable-ended to the left and half-hipped to the right, with a catslide over an outshut at the rear. The lower gable-ended section of the house and one range of farmbuildings have scantle-slate roofs, whilst the remainder of the farmbuildings have gable-ended corrugated-iron roofs. Chimney stacks are built of coursed stone rubble with weatherings.

The house follows a 3-room and wide cross-passage plan facing south, with the ground falling away to the left. It is a late-Medieval open hall house originally consisting of a hall with an unheated inner room to the right, a cross passage, and a service end to the left. The hall was formerly open to the roof, probably running continuously from end to end with rooms divided by low screens. A surviving plank and muntin screen remains in place.

The building was remodelled internally in the 17th century with the insertion of a first floor. An external lateral stack was added to the rear of the hall, and an axial stack was inserted in the service room, backing onto the cross passage. The low ceiling inserted in the hall suggests the intention was to create a great chamber above, supported by evidence of a first-floor fireplace and first-floor ceiling. The eaves were raised over the hall and inner-room end, probably when the house was floored. An outshut was added to the rear of the lower end, containing a staircase to the left of the rear stack. This was probably added when the house was floored and may have formerly extended continuously along the back wall before the addition of a later dairy wing. The inner room was possibly divided at the same time, with a kitchen formed from space at the rear of the cross passage. A dairy wing was added at the rear of the upper (right-hand) end, probably in the late 19th century. An L-shaped range of farmbuildings, incorporating shippons and a granary in the return wing, was added to the left-hand end, probably at the same time as the dairy wing.

The house is a two-storey building, while the farmbuildings are of one storey with lofts.

The exterior presents a roughly symmetrical 3-window front with late 19th-century wooden casements. These comprise three 2-light casements to the first floor, with a low left-hand casement positioned below the eaves, and two ground-floor casements to the right—the hall casement has 3 lights and the inner room casement has 2 lights. A 20th-century half-glazed cross-passage door is positioned to the left. The shippon adjoining the lower end of the house has a boarded loft door with a wooden lintel and a central ground-floor segmental-headed slatted window flanked by segmental-headed boarded doors (the left-hand door has 2 leaves). The front of the return wing, which projects at right angles to the left, features 2 boarded loft doors and 4 ground-floor segmental-headed boarded doors. The left-hand gable end has external stone steps leading up to a boarded loft door with a wooden lintel.

The interior of the house preserves several important features. A plank and muntin screen dating to circa 1500 stands between the cross passage and the hall, consisting of wide planks and muntins with wide chamfers. A ledged nail-studded boarded door with old strap hinges separates the cross passage from the hall. Another nail-studded boarded door with a straight-sided arched head leads between the hall and a room at the rear of the cross passage.

The cross passage contains 2 chamfered wall beams to the rear of the screen, both with stepped runout stops. A chamfered half beam runs to the lower side of the passage, also with stepped runout stops. The portion over the doorway between the passage and the service room is chamfered on both sides. The hall contains a pair of chamfered cross beams. A blocked large 17th-century fireplace with dressed-stone jambs is situated to the rear of the hall, above which is a 19th-century mantelshelf. A blocked doorway stands to the right of the fireplace. A boarded door to the dairy with a chamfered frame is located in the rear right-hand corner of the hall, with a chamfered half beam to the rear wall at this point.

Two doorways lead to the inner room. A late 17th-century or circa 1700 door to the front part of the inner room features 4 raised and fielded panels, with large panels at top and bottom and 2 small panels at the centre, set in a mitred frame. A chamfered wall beam with scroll stops runs along the front wall of the room. The dairy contains slate shelves. A door of circa 1700 between the cross passage and the former service room has 2 raised and fielded panels. A blocked old fireplace is present in the former service room, along with an arched recess in the front wall, possibly a former window. A dog-leg stair positioned to the left of the hall stack has a boarded door at its base.

The former great chamber over the hall was divided, probably in the late 19th century. A probable 17th-century great-chamber fireplace in the rear wall (now opening onto a corridor) features fluted ornament, though this was papered over at the time of survey in July 1987. An old cupboard door with strap hinges stands to the left of the fireplace. A door of circa 1700 to the right-hand bedroom has 2 raised and fielded panels. An old boarded door opens into the rear bedroom over the dairy. A cupboard in the front wall of the central bedroom incorporates probably reused 17th-century panels.

Much of the late-Medieval roof is visible from the first-floor rooms, including 2 side-pegged jointed cruck trusses positioned over the upper and lower ends of the passage. The lower purlins appear to be in situ.