Buddle

This is a house with a medieval core, significantly altered in the 17th century and renovated in the 20th century. The walls are a mix of colourwashed rendered cob and stone rubble, and the roof is thatched, gabled at the left end and half-hipped at the right, with a brick chimney stack at the left end and another axial stack with a brick shaft.

Thorough 20th-century renovations revealed a complex building history. Originally, a small medieval open hall house, possibly with an adjoining shippon (a livestock building), was extended at the higher end by an inner room with its own open hearth. The higher end was ceiled over, a stack was inserted, and the shippon was rebuilt in the 17th century. Rear outshuts to the inner room and hall may date to the 18th or 19th century. A likely 19th-century passage and stair in the higher end were removed during the 20th-century renovations, resulting in a three-room and through-passage house layout. The hall is heated by a stack backing onto the passage, and the lower end functions as an unheated outbuilding. A 20th-century stair has been inserted in the rear left outshut, and the outshut to the hall has been converted into a kitchen.

The front has two storeys and three windows, with the thatch sloping down between the inner room and hall, and again between the hall and the through passage and lower end. A late 20th-century timber front door is located in the passage, and a further entrance with flanking buttresses leads directly into the inner room. The windows are mostly late 20th-century replacements including 16-pane sashes to the left and 3-light casements with 3 panes per light in the centre. One 3-light casement with 2 panes per light is above the passage door. The outbuilding has a front entrance and a loading door to the loft. The thatch extends as a catslide roof to the rear outshuts.

Inside, the hall fireplace features ashlar granite jambs and a replaced timber lintel, with replaced late 20th-century joists. A cross beam is believed to be original. The inner room fireplace has an ovolo-moulded stopped timber lintel on rebuilt jambs, and large, exposed joists. The through passage has thin, exposed joists. A curved foot roof truss visible over the hall has a collar lap dovetailed into the principal rafters, apparently with an East-apex. Smoke-blackened timbers are said to survive in the roofspace above the inner room. The roof trusses in the lower end were replaced in the late 20th century, and the wall between the lower end and passage is a stone wall with a timber partition above. The right gable end wall of the lower end was rebuilt during the late 20th century using remixed old cob and shuttering. This is a house with a significant building history, showcasing a two-phase medieval development, which is unusual for this area of Devon.