East Dodscott Farmhouse

East Dodscott Farmhouse

A farmhouse dating from the 16th century with major improvements made in the mid and late 17th century, and further modernisation in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of plastered local stone rubble with sections of cob, and has stone rubble stacks topped with 20th-century brick. The roof is covered with asbestos slate, though it was formerly thatched.

The main block faces south-south-east and follows a 4-room-and-through-passage plan. At the east end is an unheated dairy with part of it partitioned off as a pantry. The passage comes next, followed by the hall which has an axial stack backing onto the passage. The hall and parlour are separated by an entrance hall containing the main stair, with the parlour located at the west end and having a gable-end stack. A 1-room kitchen block projects at right angles from the rear of the lower end, overlapping the back of the passage and also featuring a gable-end stack. Most of the earlier structure is hidden by 19th and 20th-century plaster, but the present layout appears to be the result of a major late 17th-century refurbishment of an earlier house. The parlour is a late 17th-century extension, and at the same time the former inner room was converted to the entrance lobby. The roof of the main block was replaced at this period, leaving little exposed evidence of the original 16th-century structure. It is likely that the original house had a 3-room-and-through-passage plan and was probably some form of open hall house. The kitchen is a mid-17th-century extension.

The farmhouse is 2 storeys high. The front, facing south, has an irregular arrangement of four late 19th and 20th-century casement windows. The pantry and dairy windows remain unglazed. The passage-front doorway is positioned right of centre and contains a 20th-century part-glazed plank door. The entrance lobby doorway to the left of centre contains a 19th-century 6-panel door, now sheltered by a 20th-century porch. The roof is gable-ended.

At the rear, the kitchen doorway features a mid-17th-century oak doorframe with chamfered surround. The interior shows predominantly 19th and 20th-century modernisations, though the earlier layout is well-preserved. Little original carpentry detail remains exposed, and all the fireplaces are obscured by 20th-century grates. The kitchen contains 2 chamfered crossbeams with straight-cut stops. The main stair is 19th-century work with stick balusters. The parlour includes two good late 17th-century cupboards, one on each side of the fireplace. These are round-headed with fielded panel doors, shaped shelves, and coverstrips on the head with a sunburst rather than the more typical shell-head design. There are a couple of contemporary 2-panel doors on the first floor, and a good early to mid 17th-century door between the hall and passage chambers, featuring small field panels and cockshead hinges. The late 17th-century roof over the main block is carried on A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The large-framed crosswall on the lower side of the passage is earlier, probably 16th-century in date, and shows no evidence of smoke-blackening. The kitchen block roof is 2 bays and carried on a 17th-century truss with principals featuring curved feet.

East Dodscott, also known as Doddescott House, is recorded as Dodecota in the Domesday Book. It was formerly the home of Thomas Chafe.