Reeves Hall And Reeves Coombe

Reeves Hall and Reeves Coombe

A pair of houses on Hatherdown Hill, Bovey Tracey, originally formed as one large dwelling. The building dates from the 15th or early 16th century, with major remodelling undertaken in the late 16th or early 17th century. A south-west wing was added in the mid-19th century, and a minor addition followed in the 20th century.

The earlier house is constructed of cob and stone, covered with roughcast. The 19th-century wing is probably of stone, rendered with stucco mouldings. The earlier house has a thatched roof, half-hipped at the left-hand end with a hip or half-hip at the right-hand end, partly disguised by the 19th-century wing. A rendered chimneystack on an ashlar granite base (serving the former hall) sits on the ridge off-centre to the left, with a rendered stack in the right-hand gable. The 19th-century wing has a slated roof with a rendered chimneystack in the right-hand gable.

The original plan was probably a 3-room hall with through-passage, modified in the late 16th or early 17th century to provide a parlour at the lower end. A new parlour with entrance and stair hall was added at right-angles to the lower end in the 19th century, with the upper end of the old house being downgraded to a barn. The inner room (now restored to domestic use) and hall form Reeves Coombe, while Reeves Hall comprises the through-passage, parlour, and 19th-century wing.

The building is two storeys tall. The old house presents an irregular 5-window front facing north-west. The original front door, positioned off-centre to the right, has a chamfered wood frame with a 2-centred arch on durn jambs, enclosed within a chamfered rectangular frame. A roughcast, solid-walled porch with a half-hipped thatched roof protects the entrance, accessed by 2 granite steps with a cobbled floor. Two ground-storey windows stand to the right of the porch and one to the left. At the far left-hand end is a 20th-century conservatory with a hipped slated roof. Except for the conservatory, all windows are wood casements with small rectangular panes. Most are 20th-century work, though the 2 ground-storey windows to the right of the porch and the second-storey window immediately above are 19th-century. The front wall is supported by 4 large buttresses.

The 19th-century wing faces south-west and is 2 windows wide. To the left of the ground storey is a round-headed doorway with plain pilasters and moulded archivolt, fitted with a 4-panelled door. To the right is a 3-light wooden sash window with raised surround and cornice on consoles. A moulded band-course separates the storeys. Second-storey windows have wooden sashes with flanking pilasters. In the left-hand (north-west) gable is a tall round-headed stair window with wood sashes. The sashes in both fronts probably originally had small panes, but only 1 horizontal glazing-bar per sash now survives.

Interior

The hall contains a stack backing on to the through-passage. The fireplace has granite jambs and a chamfered wood lintel, faced up in the 20th century with re-used granite gateposts and a plain wood lintel. A 19th-century oven at the rear has been reduced in depth. To the right of the fireplace is a pair of chamfered wood door-jambs with shouldered heads, re-set and brought closer together. At the upper end stands a stud-and-panel screen with renewed sill and head-beams; the studs are chamfered with diagonal-cut stops on the hall side and plain towards the former inner room. A chamfered ceiling-beam without stops spans the space.

The through-passage has a stone wall to the right (ground storey only) with a probably re-set chamfered wood doorway. This has a 2-centred arch, durn jambs, and a chamfered wood lintel with straight-cut stops over, one end buried in the wall.

The parlour contains a chamfered beam with step-stops at the upper end, probably dating from before the room was remodelled. It has slots for halved studs on its lower face, probably for partitioning off a buttery or closet, and plain heavy joists. The beam at the lower end is ogee-moulded with scroll-stops, with joists on either side having scratch mouldings. In the lower gable is a fireplace with splayed granite jambs and an ogee-moulded wood lintel, the latter with stops carved as scrolls rather than the usual scroll-stops. A smaller version of this fireplace, with hollow-moulded jambs, appears in the second storey above. To the right of the chimney-breast is a curved recess, probably for a former hewel staircase.

The roof contains 3 original trusses, positioned over the hall, passage, and upper end of the parlour. These have cranked collars, butt purlins, and no ridge-pieces. The last 2 trusses are side-pegged jointed crucks, though the feet of the hall truss are not visible. Purlins and many common rafters survive, together with some smoke-blackened thatching spars over the hall. The trusses and rafters over the hall and passage are blackened, suggesting that this part of the house was originally single-storeyed and heated by an open hearth. The section of old roof over the parlour appears clean, although there is no sign of a former partition at the point where the timbers change colour. Above the parlour is a late 16th or early 17th-century truss with plain feet, a halved dovetailed collar, and a notched apex.