Droridge

Droridge is a house dating from the early 16th century with additions from the mid and late 17th centuries, subsequently restored in the late 20th century. It stands in Dartington and is constructed of roughcast stone rubble with a Delabole slate roof with gabled ends. The front has a rendered stone rubble lateral stack and the rear wing features a gable end stack.

The original building was open to the roof from end to end, consisting of three rooms and a through passage divided by low screens, with the lower end to the left. During the 17th century the house was substantially modified: it was probably reduced in length by the removal of the inner room at the higher end and truncation of the lower end, which may have originally been a shippon and remains unheated. Floors were inserted at this time and a lateral stack was built at the front of the hall. Around the mid-17th century a two-storey kitchen wing was added to the rear of the lower end with a gable end stack and smoking chamber. Around the late 17th century an unheated two-storey wing was added to the rear of the higher end; the chamber above may have been heated but the corbelled gable end stack appears to be a later addition. The porch fronting the passage is probably a late 17th or early 18th century addition. A farm building at the lower end was probably added in the 18th century or later.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical front of approximately three windows. The windows are 20th century casements with glazing bars in one-, two- and three-light configurations. The passage doorway is set left of centre within a porch with rendered side walls, a partially open front, and a slate lean-to roof; the doorway itself has a large chamfered shouldered wooden frame with a heavy plank door hung on wrought iron hinges. Inside the porch are benches on the side walls. To the right of the porch stands a large projecting front lateral hall stack with set-offs. The hall window to the right of the stack is a 20th century three-light casement. To the left of the doorway are two windows in the lower room with 20th century one- and two-light casements, above which is a 19th century three-light casement in a gabled half-dormer. A gabled full dormer of circa late 19th century sits in the roof above the porch.

The rear elevation reveals two gabled wings. The 17th century right-hand wing behind the lower end displays a large projecting gable end stack with a rendered shaft tapering at the top, and to the left of the stack is a large projecting smoking-chamber gabled at top with a small blocked opening. The wing at the rear of the higher end dates from the later 17th century and has a possible later corbelled stack at the apex of the gable end with two rendered octagonal shafts. This wing contains two windows on each floor with flat stone arches and the gable end is flanked by two slender buttresses with cut-offs. A later lean-to to the right of the higher end wing fills the space between the two rear wings and has a plank door in a cambered stone arch opening. Casements from the 18th and 19th centuries appear in the higher gable end of the main range, and a late 17th century three-light casement survives in the upper floor of the rear wing.

Much of the interior was restored in the late 20th century. The partitions on either side of the passage appear to be 20th century work, and the ceilings are plastered over, with some or all beams possibly replaced. The hall's front lateral fireplace and the gable end fireplace of the kitchen wing have replaced lintels. The smoking chamber to the side of the kitchen fireplace remains unaltered and has a corbelled stone roof. A small blocked window appears in the lower end wall on the ground floor of the main range.

The roof largely retains its medieval structure. The six-bay roof contains seven smoke-blackened trusses with straight principals resting on the wall plates, of which only three have curved feet. The cranked collars are morticed to the principals which are mortice and tenon jointed at the apex; the purlins are threaded but there appears to have been no ridge-piece. Most rafters have been replaced. The second truss from the higher right end may have been a closed truss at one stage. The truss at the higher end is against the higher end wall and that at the lower end is very close to the lowered end wall; both trusses appear blackened on both sides while the end walls remain clean, suggesting the house originally extended further at either end. The rear wing behind the lower end has 17th century trusses with halved and notched lap-jointed collars secured with large nails rather than wooden pegs; it has butt purlins and possibly a threaded ridge-piece. The rear wing behind the higher end has roof trusses with morticed apexes and collars lapped and nailed to the faces of the principals.