Brickhouse

Brickhouse

House, probably late 17th century. Built for Mr Long Esq., who died before its completion. Swete's 1796 watercolours describe it as an incomplete 'shell'. The house was derelict in the 1960s and has since been renovated.

The building is constructed in English bond brick on a stone plinth, with a red pantile roof gabled at the ends and massive brick projecting end stacks with set-offs. A later 19th-century brick addition with a tiled roof was added subsequently. The architecture is in artisan mannerist style, which is extremely unusual for Devon and represents an unusually early use of brick in the county.

According to Swete's watercolours, the original building comprised two blocks, of which only one survives. The surviving block was originally three storeys and two rooms wide, built into the slope of the land. The principal rooms were positioned on the first floor with a first-floor entrance, while service rooms occupied the ground floor. Based on the roof structure, the house was reduced to two storeys in the early 19th century. It later served as two cottages in the 20th century. The principal stair no longer exists, and the newel stair that provided access from the ground-floor services to the piano nobile has been replaced. The house has been reoriented, and the original porch to the first-floor rooms has been blocked.

The exterior is remarkable for its robust decorative brick detail. The symmetrical five-bay front (now the rear) features a gabled porch at first-floor level with brick pilasters and a moulded brick cornice above a round-headed doorway with a keystone, now blocked and converted to a window. To the left and right are blind windows, two on each side, with projecting brick architraves and moulded brick cornices. The present five-bay front elevation includes a 20th-century verandah on posts with a tiled roof, screened centrally to form a porch. Ground-floor windows have segmental brick arches and 20th-century three-light timber casements with glazing bars. First-floor windows feature projecting round-headed brick arches with keyblocks and blind panels above 20th-century two-light timber transomed casements. The centre window, lighting the stair, is set below the others and smaller, though of the same design, and is linked to a window above set in a projecting square brick frame. A brick platband below the eaves (originally at second-floor level) is linked to the keyblocks of the first-floor windows. A single-storey later brick addition at the right end, slightly set back, contains casement windows. The massive stacks retain the remains of a projecting brick string course.

The interior has been largely modernized. It remains unclear whether the piano nobile rooms were ever completed and fitted out. The ground-floor rooms each contain a massive chamfered crossbeam, with the left-hand room beam retaining surviving scroll stops.

The roof comprises conventional early 19th-century king post and strut trusses.

Swete recorded four watercolours of the house and noted that Mr Long, having grown dissatisfied with his ancient manor at Mowlish and having surrendered his other seat at Newhouse to Mr Oxenham (who had married his daughter), began this building for himself but died before seeing its completion. David Long Esq. served as sheriff of Devon in 1704–1705.