Courtyard Wall Immediately To West Of Blegberry Farmhouse And Extending Approximately 50 Metres To The South

HARTLAND SS 22 NW

1/118 Courtyard wall immediately to west 20.2.58 of Blegberry Farmhouse and extending approximately 50 metres to the south

GV II*

Courtyard wall to farmhouse, incorporating ramparts and platform and extending to the south parallel to the coastline. Dated 1606. Battered rubble walls with shaped stone coping and dripcourse. The wall forms a defensive courtyard on the south- western side of the house looking out to sea, curving around a corner at its south- western extreme containing on the inside stone steps and a little rectangular projection. At its northern end is a date-stone of 1606 with the initials "WA" signifying William Atkyns who died in 1608. The pistol loops have wide internal splays. At the south-eastern corner of the courtyard wall is a simple doorway with rough stone lintel. At the northern end the wall incorporates a probably inserted stone outbuilding of one storey with stone steps up to a central doorway and small window to either side. To the south the wall continues beyond the house parallel to a cart track for approximately 50 metres and then returns to the east with a noticeable batter at the corner. This is an extremely unusual and very well-preserved example of a C17 defensive wall to a coastal farmstead of which no other such type is known in Devon. The north coasts of Devon and Cornwall were a well-known haunt of maranding pirates in Tudor and Elizabethan times. In 1608 a commission was issued to the Earl of Bath, who took the deposition of 3 persons of Barnstaple to the effect that the merchants were daily robbed at sea by pirates who took refuge at Lundy. Sources: Studies in Building History: Cornish Houses 1400 - 1700 - E.M. Jope, The Book of Hartland - R. Pearse Chope. The Pirates' Den - Notes of the Past: R Pearse Chope - Hartland Chronicle June 1906

Listing NGR: SS2319226135