Hammetts

Hammetts is a house formerly used as a farmhouse, located in Woolfardisworthy. The building dates from the late 15th century but was substantially altered, probably in 1653, and modernised in the late 20th century. It has rendered stone rubble walls, possibly incorporating some cob, beneath a gable-ended asbestos slate roof. A brick stack stands at the left gable-end, alongside a large 17th-century coursed squared rubble axial stack with dripmoulds and a tapering cap.

The house was originally built as an open hall house with a 2-room-and-through-passage plan, the lower end positioned to the left. It was divided only by low partitions, with a central hearth serving as the main fire source. The building remained open to the roof until 1653—a date recorded in the hall's plasterwork—when it was floored and a new stack was inserted into the hall, backing onto the passage. This remodelling created a high-quality chamber above. The lower room fireplace is probably contemporary with this work, though it has since been altered. The lower room appears to have served a more functional purpose whilst the hall evolved into a hall-parlour. Behind the hall, a winder staircase in a rear projection and an adjoining integral dairy—both part of the 1653 remodelling—were added. In the late 20th century, the hall was subdivided and a rear passage created. A detached shippon adjoining the lower room was converted, and a small linking range was built.

The exterior presents two storeys with an asymmetrical 4-window front. The windows are predominantly late 20th-century 2-light small-paned casements, except for a small earlier 20th-century leaded-light casement at centre on the first floor. The two ground floor windows to the right are crowned with 17th-century stone hoodmoulds. To the left of centre is what is probably the original chamfered stone doorway with a segmental arch and diagonal stops, now fitted with a 20th-century plank door with glazed panel. At the left-hand end, a short connecting range adjoins a converted shippon. The rear left portion of the house projects to accommodate the staircase, with a further projection for the dairy at its left-hand end.

Internally, the lower room contains a chamfered and unstopped cross beam with a replaced lintel to the open fireplace, which features a cloam oven in its side. To the right of the passage, the former hall has a fireplace with an ovolo-moulded and ogee-stopped lintel. On the end wall beyond is a moulded plaster cornice bearing the date 1653 and the initials PPIH, with a small plaster shield at the centre and plaster fleurons to either side. A stone winder staircase in the rear projection rises around a solid core with only a thin partition separating it from the adjoining dairy. The first floor fireplace above the hall also features an ovolo-moulded wooden lintel with fillet and ogee stops. Evidence in the roof-space suggests a former plaster barrel ceiling once covered the first floor chamber at the higher end.

The roof retains one original truss positioned just above the hall stack, with curved feet now boxed in. This truss is of heavy scantling with mortices for a removed collar and a small yoke at the apex, with the principals extending slightly above to clasp the ridge. A 17th-century collar has been halved on with dovetail joints, and a similar collar appears lower down. The original timbers are smoke-blackened. Another truss at the higher end, featuring a lapped crossed apex, is probably of the later 17th century. Twentieth-century trusses cover the lower end, with rafters throughout the remainder.

The house preserves good-quality 17th-century features and demonstrates an interesting development of plan whilst retaining evidence of its earlier origins.