Hallswell

Hallswell is a farmhouse dating to approximately the late 15th century, with alterations in the 17th century and extensive modernisation in the late 20th century. The walls are of rubble, rendered at the sides and rear, with a projecting lateral rubble stack rendered at the front. The roof is covered with grouted scantle slates at the front and asbestos slates at the rear, with gable ends that extend over outshuts at the front.

Originally the house had a three-room plan with a through passage, featuring a hall and lower end open to the roof, and an inner room ceiled, with a chamber above. The hall and lower end were ceiled in the 17th century. Later, the lower room was demolished, and an outshut was added to the front of the inner room in the 19th century. In the late 1970s, the house underwent extensive modernisation, which involved the removal of an original doorway and window frame, and a plank and muntin screen. A lean-to rubble porch was also added to the right-hand end of the front.

The front elevation is asymmetrical, with a 19th-century outshut to the left and a late 20th-century porch to the right. A lateral stack is positioned between them, along with a 20th-century casement window with glazing bars to its right. At the centre of the left-hand outshut is a 20th-century door flanked by two 2-light casements with glazing bars. The rear of the house also has 20th-century casements, including a French window on the ground floor.

The interior retains few original or early features due to the modernisation. The hall has a cross beam and a half beam at the higher end, both roughly chamfered without stops. Five original roof trusses survive, extending down into the walls and likely being jointed crucks. They feature threaded purlins and a ridge, with morticed sharply cranked collars. Two trusses at the higher end are clean, the central one, at the upper end of the hall, is a closed truss with a straight collar, smoke-blackened on the hall side, and the others are heavily smoke-blackened on both sides. A removed original oak doorframe was chamfered with a pronounced ogee at the top. A removed 2-light wooden mullion window frame with cusped heads to each light was formerly located in the right-hand first-floor opening at the rear. The removed plank and muntin screen divided the hall from the passage, with chamfered muntins and a head-beam.

The original door and window frames have been preserved in an outbuilding and are in good condition. Preservation in situ would have made Hallswell a remarkable survival of a former open hall house, and the early form of the door and window frame would have been an unusual survival in Devon. The largely complete medieval roof provides the strongest indication of the building’s age. The building’s high-quality construction and elaborate form suggest it was once a high-status house.