Merrifield

SLAPTON SX84NW Merrifield 5/75

II

House, formerly a farmhouse. C17 or earlier, remodelled in C18 and extended at rear in C19. Roughcast stone rubble. Bituminised slate roof, gabled at left-hand (west) end and half-hipped at lower right-hand (east) end. End and axial stacks with later brick shafts. Plan: 3-room and through-passage plan facing south. The lower right-hand (east) room and the inner left end room are heated from gable end stacks and the hall has a large 2 storey porch at the front enclosing the well to the right of the front doorway. The large inner left room has a higher foor level and a newel stair in the rear left corner. The house was altered in the C18 when the through-passage was widened slightly into the lower end, and the lower end was remodelled and panelled as a small parlour with an axial passage at the back from which rises a straight staircase on the lower left side of the through passage partition. The large single storey outshut behind the hall and inner room is an addition probably C18, but the outshut behind the lower end is C19. Exterior: 2 storeys. Long asymmetrical 4-window range. C20 2 and 3-light casements with glazing bars. Doorway to right of centre with large 2-storey porch with hipped roof and small C20 plank door with C20 wooden open outer porch. Rear elevation; Single storey outshuts across the back with slated lean-to roofs and C20 casements with brick jambs. Interior: The hall has no exposed features. Inner room has unchamfered ceiling beams, chamfered fireplace lintel and stone newel stairs to chamber above. Lower end room has C18 panelling with cornice and round-headed china-cupboard with fluted pilasters and shaped shelves; the later chimneypiece has a bracketed shelf. The floors are mainly slate. Much of the C18 joinery survives including fielded 2-panel doors on the ground and first floors. The staircase is boxed in and has moulded handrails. The inner room chamber has a small fire-place with a chamfered wooden lintel. The roof over the lower right end is a C19 structure with lapped and pegged collars. The roof over the hall and inner room was inaccessible at time of survey 1988 but the feet are exposed of straight principals over the hall and curved feet to what is probably on original truss over the inner room.

Listing NGR: SX8155547138