South Halstow Farmhouse

DUNSFORD SX 89 SW

3/20 South Halstow Farmhouse

• II

Farmhouse. Circa early C16 origins, circa late C17 remodelling. Whitewashed rendered cob; slate roof gabled at ends; projecting front lateral stack with brick shaft, projecting right end stack, left end stack. Complex development. The remains of 2 smoke-blackened medieval roofs at different levels is puzzling, it is possible that the hall was enlarged and that the higher of the 2 roofs (over the lower end) originally extended above the lower roof. There is documentary evidence of the building being partly floored in 1539. The present plan is 3 room and through passage the lower end to the left, the hall heated by a front lateral stack the inner and lower end rooms heated from gable end stacks, small rear left and right projections contain stairs and probably post date the fabric of the main range. A rear lean-to between the projections is likely to be later still. 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 5-window front with a C20 flat-roofed porch to the passage to the left of a projecting lateral stack with brick shaft. 16-pane sash windows to the left of the porch, 2-light casements, 6 panes per light to the right. Interior The hall has an open fireplace with stone jambs and a chamfered stopped lintel, a stone paved floor and a chamfered stopped cross beam. The lower end room has a chamfered cross beam and an open fireplace with Posbury stone jambs and a chamfered lintel. There are 2 circa late C17 texts painted directly on to the wall plaster on the first floor. One, on the wall-of the rear left stair well is a verse with a painted border. A second text above a doorway has a painted border of arabesques and foliage; the text may be repaintedbJtthe initials "G H" at the top appear to be original. Of the 2 medieval roofs below a C19 or C20 roof the lower roof survives as 1 jointed cruck truss and the ridge which has been propped up on the cob wall between the inner room and hall, which is also sooted. 2 trusses of a roof at a higher level survive, 1 truss over the lower end room. A lease of -1539 refers to "one parlor within the hall there, with a chamber over" (D.R.O. 21/16/33 [DD44277]). An attractive evolved farmhouse with some rare survivals of late C17 murals. South Halsow has been quoted as an example of a Devon Farmhouse of which "the entire history from Domesday to modern times can be constructed from the appropriate records" T.D.A., VOL XIV (1962) p. 134.

Listing NGR: SX8234692319