Higher Hareston

SX 55 SE BRIXTON 4/20 29/3/84 Higher Hareston

GV I

Former manor house with a chapel adjoining. Circa late C15 early C16 hall house in remarkably complete state. Stone rubble and granite dressings. Slate roof with gable ends. Hall solar and service wing, with parlour wing extension and chapel. The hall has large four-light window with four-centred arch lights, chimney stacks on front left with set off and moulded cap. Two-storeyed porch, to left of stack, to screens passage, with moulded battlements and cable mould string, two-light 1st floor window and moulded four-centred arch doorway with carved spandrels and label. The cable mould string continues to left over gable of service wing to left (south) which also has two-light windows and side stack with moulded cap and buttresses with set-offs. The solar at the north end has stacks over the gable ends also with moulded caps, and extends at the back to a parlour wing forming an L-shaped plan.. Over the side of the wing another stack with moulded cap. Continuous roll moulded four-centred arch doorway on the south side of the parlour and a small gabled stair tower in the angle at the rear. At the back of hall a two-light window with central arch lights and buttress with set offs. The rear door of screen's passage has four-centred arch and roll moulding. Small circa C16 chapel licensed in 1378 and 1399, on front (north east) of solar wing, has moulded four-centred arch doorway with label. The service end once extended at rear with a kitchen wing and a linhay which enclosed the courtyard. The kitchen wing and linhay were destroyed in a fire in 1750 but the outer walls of the kitchen wing and linhay survive one with a granite doorway with roll moulding. Interior: The front door arch of the screen's passage is four-centred and has continuous roll moulding. The screen has been largely rebuilt in C20, but retains some of the original fabric and is jettied above with moulded bressumers supporting an upper screen. The hall's later floor has been removed, now open to roof which has arch braces to the collar and carved wind braces. Moulded granite chimneypiece with ogee head, to hall fireplace. At the higher end of the hall moulded, doorways to solar and stairs. Similar door in cross passage to the buttery. Small stone squint from solar to hall. Over the porch are the Wood and Fortescue family arms. John Wood, who died in 1537, may have built the house. Ref: Transactions of the Devonshire Association 106, 1974, 119-40.

Listing NGR: SX5660553433