Yarde Farmhouse

Yarde Farmhouse, originally a manor house, represents a complex and exceptionally complete example of a high-status Devon farmhouse with origins stretching back to at least the late 16th or early 17th century, though the building may be even older. The house underwent a major transformation in 1718 when a large formal front range was added, and remarkably, it has seen little alteration since the 18th century. Some sections have fallen into disuse and deteriorated, with parts of the older ranges reduced in height, but the property retains an extraordinary degree of historic fabric.

Construction and Materials

The house is built of slatestone rubble, roughly coursed on the 18th-century front block, which has a hipped slate roof. The ranges behind have gable-ended slate roofs. There are two 18th-century brick axial stacks serving the front block, a brick lateral stack at the rear of the middle range, a rendered rubble stack at the gable end of the kitchen wing, and another stack at the gable end of the bakehouse wing.

Plan and Development

The building plan is complex and its original configuration unclear. The 1718 front addition created a symmetrical single-depth two-room block with a central stairhall. Behind this, a wing extends downhill. At the higher end of this wing is a small room followed by a larger heated room, culminating in a through-passage running from front to back. An axial passage connects this cross-passage to the front range, running in front of the two rooms. Behind the smaller room stands a two-storey porch, now facing what has become the side of the house.

Beyond the cross-passage lies a room that has probably always served as the kitchen. Projecting in front of it is a wing containing a pantry and dairy. Behind the kitchen, an L-shaped range creates an enclosed rear courtyard. Adjacent to the kitchen is a now-ruinous room of unclear original purpose, which has been reduced in height. At right angles stands a wing with a bakehouse at the lower end, featuring a fireplace in the gable wall. A passage, directly facing the main through-passage, separates the bakehouse from the other room in this wing.

Interpretation and Historical Development

The core of the old house appears centred around the rear courtyard, which contains various features from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, though interpretation presents challenges. The position of the two-storey porch is particularly problematic as it bears no relation to the through-passage, which must be a 17th-century feature judging from its doorframes. Without the porch, this wing could be interpreted as a conventional three-room-and-through-passage plan, with the inner room rebuilt as the new front in 1718 and the hall subdivided at the same date. However, the porch's location strongly suggests the house originally extended further toward what became the 1718 range, as it would be highly unusual to build a porch at one end of a house.

In the second half of the 17th century, the lower end was remodelled and the kitchen realigned as part of a service wing with the pantry and dairy projecting in front. In 1718, an attempt was made to modernise the house—a common practice for houses in this area at that time—by adding a smart new front block of four storeys. Curiously, this addition appears old-fashioned for 1718, more closely resembling buildings from around 1700, though it displays high standards and quality craftsmanship. Since the 18th century, little major work has been carried out, and rather than being improved, parts of the house fell into disuse and became dilapidated, with two of the older sections reduced in height.

The 18th-Century Front Block

The 1718 front block rises four storeys including cellar and attic. Its symmetrical five-window front remains virtually unaltered since construction. It features original wooden two-light mullion and transom windows with leaded panes throughout, except for a 19th-century replacement on the right of the ground floor. The ground-floor windows have flat voussoir arches with projecting keystones, each carved with a number that together read 1718. The central doorway retains its original flat hood supported on wooden brackets and heavy double panelled doors. Two small gabled dormer windows pierce the roof. A flat stringcourse runs between storeys, and a coved plaster eaves cornice crowns the elevation.

The left-hand end wall has had its first-floor windows blocked, along with the ground-floor window to the right. The opposite end wall retains an original first-floor window on the right; the one to its left has been blocked, and the two below are 19th-century facsimiles. At basement level on this wall are two two-light hollow-chamfered granite mullion windows with hoodmoulds. Another single granite-framed light appears at the same level on the rear wall, next to an ovolo-moulded doorframe housing an elaborate panelled and studded door. These features normally indicate an early to mid-17th-century date and may have been reused from a demolished part of the house, or this range may be built on earlier foundations. However, other early 18th-century Devon houses also have older windows in their basements, suggesting this may have been standard practice in the early 18th century. Above on the rear wall is an 18th-century mullion and transom stair window, with a single-light transom window to left and right above it.

The Older Ranges

To the north of the 18th-century block, an older wing extends downhill. On its east face it has a very tall early 19th-century sash window on the left straddling two floors. To the right is an early 19th-century sixteen-pane sash on the ground floor, set in an opening that was once wider and has a stone drip above. A long wing projects from the lower right-hand end, and in the angle stands a flat-roofed, probably 20th-century two-storey porch. Behind it is a 17th-century ovolo-moulded wooden doorframe with contemporary studded door. The wing has an unglazed two-light 18th-century mullion window on the ground floor to the left. The end of this wing, over the dairy, has been reduced to single-storey height and features a 17th-century three-light ovolo-moulded wooden mullion window on its end wall.

On the west side, the wing running back from the 18th-century block has a 17th-century two-storey gabled porch at its higher end with a round-headed South Hams type voussoir arch. Below the porch lies an enclosed courtyard, its higher end bounded by a wall with slate capping and a doorway with hoodmould connecting the two-storey porch to the bakehouse range opposite the main house.

The Courtyard and Service Ranges

Within the courtyard, the bakehouse range has a wide doorway right of centre with chamfered wooden jambs. To its right is an empty window opening; to its left on each floor is an unglazed four-light chamfered wooden mullion window. The range to its right has been reduced in height and is very dilapidated but preserves a 17th-century ovolo-moulded wooden mullion window at the centre on the ground floor.

The eastern range in the courtyard, running down from the 18th-century block, has a 17th-century moulded wooden doorframe with a 19th-century plank door to the left, above which is a late 18th-century horizontal sliding sash window. Below to the right is an early 19th-century sash window.

The outer face of the bakehouse range also has original wooden mullion windows. The ground-floor window has ovolo-moulding; the left-hand first-floor window is of two lights with slightly arched heads.

The Northern Elevation

The lower northern elevation is three windows wide. An early 19th-century tripartite sash window (dated 1806 from glass scratched inside) occupies the first floor right of centre. To its left are two 17th-century ovolo-moulded wooden mullion windows. Below are two two-light mullion and transomed windows. To their right is a similar five-light window with its top lights now blocked. A lower wing extending to the right, connecting the main house to the bakehouse, has a wide doorway reached by steps, with a chamfered wooden doorframe and studded door.

Interior of the Front Block

The front block contains original bolection-moulded wooden fireplaces in most principal rooms, including the attic. On the first floor, the right-hand room has a moulded plaster cornice and fielded two-panel doors to a closet at the rear. The opposite room has similar doors to its two closets. The ground-floor right-hand room features an original china cupboard with arched head and a painted ceiling in the design of a rose. The opposite ground-floor room has complete fielded panelling incorporating a chimneypiece cupboard and panelled shutters. Its moulded wooden cornice has a similar plaster cornice above.

An early 18th-century dog-leg staircase rises from the centre of this block to the attic. It has a closed string, square newels with moulded caps, pendent finials, and heavy turned balusters.

Interior of the Older Ranges

From the stairhall, a passage leads down obliquely to the older part of the house. Its walls are partly lined with unusual painted canvas depicting a hunting scene in a wood with hounds and a man on foot, with a house in the background. From the way it has been painted, it appears to have been designed expressly for this location, though it may date earlier and have been adapted to fit.

Where the passage runs through the older part of the house, there is a section of circa mid-17th-century panelling either side of a panelled door with fluted pilasters and modillion cornice. This passage has an 18th-century moulded plaster cornice. At its lower end is a 17th-century chamfered doorframe.

The kitchen, pantry, and dairy have plastered beams and flagstone floors. Two 17th-century studded plank doors lead out of the kitchen, one to the pantry and one to the stairs. At the top of the stairs are two 17th-century ovolo-moulded wooden doorframes. A small room off the stairs contains more 17th-century panelling.

The Bakehouse

The bakehouse range across the courtyard has a massive fireplace in its gable end wall with a stone voussoir arch and stone oven in the right-hand side. At the back in this corner is a large rounded recess with corbelled roof and small flue; in its floor is a circular stone-lined pit reputedly constructed for brewing ale. The other end of this wing has chamfered ceiling beams.

Roofs

Over the bakehouse wing is an 18th-century pegged roof with collars halved into the principals. The 18th-century block retains its original roof, but over the rest of the house the roofspace is inaccessible, so it is not known whether early roofs survive.

Significance

This is a very complex house that cannot be properly understood without detailed survey, but its importance is self-evident. It represents the top end of the vernacular range and is exceptionally complete, with some unusual features and essentially unaltered since the 18th century.