Higher Cobberton Farmhouse

Farmhouse. Dating from the mid to late 18th century, it is constructed of local stone rubble, with rendered front and left (south west) elevations. The roof is hipped and covered with scantle slate, with asbestos slates to the front pitch. A large, central axial chimney stack with a taped cap is a prominent feature. The building’s layout is unusual, featuring a virtually symmetrical cruciform plan. This includes a central projection to the front and rear, a double-depth configuration with a best parlour at the centre that projects from the front, a smaller heated room to the left, a stair hall/through passage to the right, and a full-depth but narrow unheated service room to the extreme right. Behind the left room is a shallow, unheated room, and behind the centre room is the kitchen, which projects to the rear. It contains a large fireplace within the central chimney stack, arranged back-to-back with the parlour fireplace. The kitchen fireplace was originally said to have contained an oven in the side of the stack. The exterior presents a symmetrical facade with three bays, the centre gabled and projecting, and the right-hand bay slightly wider. The first floor has three small window openings with 20th-century casements. The ground floor features late 19th-century 2-light casements with glazing bars to the right, a late 19th-century 3-light casement with glazing bars in the centre, and a 20th-century 2-light casement to the left. All windows are in original, unaltered openings. A doorway to the right of the projecting centre bay has a 19th-century plank door within a segmental arched opening. A 20th-century lean-to porch is situated in the angle. The rear elevation has a 2:1:1 window arrangement, with a projecting, hipped roof central section. It has 19th-century 2 and 3-light casements with glazing bars. A passage doorway is located to the left of the centre bay, with a 20th-century concrete block porch in the angle. Inside, a dog-leg staircase is found at the rear of the passage, featuring square newels and stick balusters; first flight balusters have been removed. A plastered stud partition separates the passage from the unheated dairy to the right. The parlour in the centre has a 20th-century fireplace, while the small room to the left has a simple wooden chimneypiece with a bracketed shelf. The rear service room and the kitchen may have originated as a single room. The large kitchen fireplace has an unchamfered wooden lintel and stone rubble jambs, back-to-back with the parlour fireplace. Some original 18th-century 2-panel and 6-panel doors remain, along with old plank doors on the first floor. This property’s unusual transitional plan achieves external symmetry through a complete double-depth arrangement with a projecting centre, while retaining the traditional passage and dairy of one end.