Higher Allerton

This farmhouse probably dates from the late 16th or early 17th century, with possible earlier origins. It was substantially remodelled and extended in the 18th century, with further alterations in the 19th century. The building is constructed of local limestone rubble, rendered at the front and slate-hung at the right-hand (east) end. The roofs are slate: the steeper pitched right end has gable ends with grouted scantle slate, while the lower pitched left end is hipped. The front left wing is also hipped, and the parallel rear range has a gable-ended roof. Black-glazed ridge tiles run along the ridges. Moulded cast-iron gutters with lion masks at the joints are fitted to the right side of the front elevation. The chimney stacks have brick shafts, comprising two rear lateral stacks, one axial stack near the left end, and a side stack to the front wing.

Plan and Development

The original late 16th or early 17th century house was probably arranged as a three-room plan facing south-southwest, with the ground level lowered to the right. It is uncertain which end served as the service area and where the passage was located. The hall occupied the centre and was heated by a rear lateral stack. The left-hand room has an end stack, and the right-hand room has a rear lateral stack, though these may have been added during the 18th-century remodelling. The stair tower behind the right end of the hall, beside the lateral stack, appears to have been part of the original late 16th or early 17th century house, evidenced by straight masonry joints on the rear wall.

During the 18th-century remodelling, the room uses may have been rearranged. The stair tower was retained and fitted with an 18th-century framed staircase accessed from the hall, which now has a doorway opposite the stairs on the front elevation. The right-hand room appears to have been extended later (possibly in the early 20th century) for use as a drawing room, while the left-hand room probably served as the parlour in the 18th century. At the same time in the 18th century, a shallow two-storey parallel range was added at the back, incorporating the stair tower and engulfing the lateral hall stack. This service range contained the kitchen behind the left-hand room, a large cupboard in the remaining space behind the lateral hall stack, and a small unheated room behind the right-hand room.

Also dating from the 18th century is the service range at the left, which projects at the front as a one-room plan wing and has a single-storey lean-to at the back containing the pantry and a small walled yard adjoining at the left end.

The house was altered again in the 19th century, particularly the hall, which was refashioned in the late 19th century, apparently by T C Kellock, who is said to have introduced 16th and 17th century features. A former barn with an engine house at the back of the right-hand end of the house was linked to the house by a cartway to the farmyard, which has been blocked to form a room giving access to the barn via the small unheated rear room and a lean-to at its end. The barn has been converted into a room fitted with panelling said to have come from the Guildhall in Totnes.

Exterior

The building is two storeys high with an asymmetrical five-window front plus a wing to the left. The first floor has three 18th-century three-light casements to the right with leaded panes and one similar single-light window to the left, with a 20th-century metal casement to the left of centre. The ground floor features a 19th-century verandah across most of the front (except for the left end) with a hipped slate roof on slim cast-iron columns. The centre section in front of a doorway is now glazed and flanked by two early 20th-century wooden bay windows with leaded panes. To the left, also under the verandah, is a small two-light window, and further left a 20th-century metal frame window that was formerly a doorway, still with a gabled hood above. The projecting wing to the left has a 20th-century metal casement on the ground floor and a similar one on the first floor of the inner face. In the angle sits a 20th-century conservatory.

At the slate-hung right-hand gable end, which was extended possibly in the early 20th century, there is a two-storey gabled bay window flanked by a pentise roof on the ground floor supported on two different reused octagonal granite piers with moulded bases and capitals.

The rear elevation has a three-light 18th-century casement with leaded panes to the right. The rest of the back is occupied by the parallel range, which has one-, two- and three-light 18th-century casements with leaded panes and an 18th-century two-light stair window to the left with a square head and late 19th-century stained glass. This window is set in the blocking of an earlier window, suggesting that the stair tower is earlier than the back range; there are straight masonry joints on either side of the stair tower and a slate plinth at the base. To the right of the back range is a 20th-century glazed door with a mounting block to its left. In the angle with the main range to the right is a single-storey lean-to outshut (the pantry). Set back to the right, the rear gable end of the wing has 18th-century casements with leaded panes.

At the back of the right-hand end of the house there is a single-storey block forming a blocked cartway with a gable-ended roof. On the ridge sits a clock tower with a tent-shaped hipped roof, a bell finial, slate-hung sides, and slate clock faces to the front and back. Below is a blocked cartway entrance with a chamfered wooden lintel. The former barn adjoining at the rear has a slate-hung front, a large three-light Gothic window in the gable end with intersecting glazing bars, and a semi-circular former engine house at the back with a raised roof and a red brick stack.

Interior

The hall has two moulded cross-beams set on corbels and one half beam over the screen to the left with two ogee and hollow mouldings and bar stops. The bars on the half beam and the right-hand beam are on one side only, and the stops on the right-hand beam have a scratch pattern of intersecting diagonals. The joists have two ogees and a roll moulding without stops.

The partition screen at the left end of the hall is panelled with linenfold carving on the top and bottom panels. The cornice is richly carved, and the carving above has moulded ribs with moulded plaster arms and florae in the panels. This screen continues into the 18th-century addition at the rear and is therefore not in its original position. On the other side in the left-hand room, the screen is covered in 18th-century fielded and moulded panelling with pilasters. At the back end of the screen, a shouldered head doorway is exposed with a diagonally stopped chamfer. The other screen on the right-hand end of the hall has linenfold carving in the top panels only.

The ornate rear lateral chimneypiece is made up from various carved pieces. The jambs have late 17th or early 18th century festoon drops, and the overmantel has panels with interesting stylized figures, probably Flemish or Italian. Inside the fireplace are some blue and white Dutch tiles. Various other 19th-century and reused carved details are present in the hall.

The stair tower at the back of the hall to the right contains a wide early 18th-century dog-leg framed staircase with turned balusters, moulded string, and handrail ramped to square newels.

The right-hand room was extended, probably in the early 20th century, and has an Italian mosaic set into the back wall. Behind this is a 16th-century six-light wooden window frame with very closely spaced chamfered mullions with mason's mitres, not rebated for glass, and diagonally stopped on the outside, which is now within the small room behind. This room has a reused moulded ceiling beam.

The other back room behind the left-hand end is the kitchen and has reused moulded cross-beams with double rolls alternating with hollows. At the left end of the kitchen is a pantry with iron bars and a 17th-century moulded eight-panel door leading outside. The doorway between the kitchen and the front room has a fielded three-panel door.

On the first floor is an almost complete set of 18th-century fielded two-panel doors. The first-floor room to the rear left has a bolection moulded chimneypiece with a fielded panel frieze and moulded mantel shelf.

The front left-hand wing has an 18th-century chimney on the ground floor with a sort of Chippendale frieze with interesting lozenges and a dentilled cornice, the whole surrounded by a larger reused chimneypiece with a fielded panel overmantel.

The converted barn adjoining the rear of the right-hand end has panelling said to have come from the Guildhall, Totnes.

Roof

The roof has three trusses with straight principal rafters with mortices for a threaded ridge piece and purlins. Some are very closely spaced, with morticed apex and dovetail halving for the collars, which are missing. There are mortices on two of the principals for collars, but the corresponding principals opposite have dovetail halving, which suggests that the roof structure has been reassembled. The roof over the left-hand end has softwood trusses.