Middlewood Farmhouse And Adjoining Stables And Front Garden Wall

Middlewood Farmhouse and Adjoining Stables and Front Garden Wall

A farmhouse with attached farmbuildings on Strawberry Lane in High Bickington. The complex comprises a house of around 1500 with 17th-century alterations, adjoining farmbuildings from probably the late 17th or 18th century, and a front garden wall likely added in the 19th century. The farmbuildings were remodelled in the late 20th century when part was converted to domestic purposes, with the remainder retained as stables.

The house is rendered over cob and stone rubble, with the adjoining stable featuring a stone rubble ground floor and rendered cob first floor. The right-hand end of the house appears mostly of stone. The roofs are gable-ended with 20th-century asbestos-slate coverings (probably formerly thatched), except for one adjoining farmbuilding which has a 20th-century clay-tile roof. The rendered stacks have tapered shafts resulting from 20th-century alterations.

The house follows a three-room and cross-passage plan facing east, with the ground falling away to the south. It was formerly open to the roof in part. The hall has an external lateral stack to the front, with a former passage and service end to the left and a former inner room to the right with its own integral lateral stack. The 17th-century alterations included insertion of a floor in the open hall and addition of the stacks. At the same time, a full-height bay was added to the right of the hall stack, and the former inner room was enlarged with a one-roomed addition to its right, both with a front wall in line with the hall bay. The eaves may also have been raised during this period. A range of probably 17th-century farmbuildings adjoins the left-hand end, projecting at right angles to the front, with the left-hand part serving as stables and the right-hand part converted to a kitchen and other spaces in the late 20th century with insertion of an axial stack. A probably 18th-century shippon adjoins the right-hand end of the house. Low stone walls enclose a small garden in front, probably added in the 19th century.

The building is two storeys. The asymmetrical front has a right-hand part with a projecting front wall and a pair of lateral stacks. The left-hand hall stack has a chamfered offset and a slate-roofed lean-to bread oven to its left. The fenestration comprises four first-floor 2-light wooden casements and three ground-floor 3-light wooden casements with wooden lintels, dating to the 19th or 20th century, plus a small 20th-century ground-floor wooden casement to the left. A doorway off-centre in the left-hand side has a 19th-century boarded door with beaded wooden frame and wooden lintel. The adjoining converted farmbuilding has two 20th-century 2-light wooden casements on each floor to the right (serving the domestic part), while the stable to the left has two 20th-century boarded loft doors with wooden lintels and two ground-floor doorways with 20th-century stable doors and wooden lintels. A loft doorway appears in the left-hand gable end. The shippon adjoins the right-hand end of the house with a central boarded loft door and two small ground-floor windows flanking a central boarded door. A low stone garden wall with a gateway to the left and square gate piers stands in front of the house.

The interior of the house retains much 16th and 17th-century fabric and fittings, though late 20th-century alterations have been made. The hall features 17th-century chamfered joists spanning from front to back with straight cut stops, and a trimmer in front of the stack with plain joists behind. A 17th-century open fireplace has stone jambs, a chamfered wooden lintel, and a bread oven with a cast-iron door, though the stonework above the lintel appears to be rebuilt. An old wooden bench runs along the right-hand side wall into the bay, and a cream hob is set into the right-hand side wall. A fine, probably late 16th-century plank and muntin screen separates the hall from the former passage. This screen features chamfered muntins with scroll stops, a chamfered head beam, and an old door with strap hinges and chamfered frame (reportedly introduced in the late 16th century). The ground-floor room to the right of the hall, formerly the inner room, retains an old fireplace with wooden lintel.

The roof structure survives in part as a late-Medieval example consisting of three raised cruck trusses positioned over the lower and upper ends of the hall and over the former inner room. These trusses have mortice and tenoned collars. A probably later truss over the former lower end has straight principals. A 17th-century truss over the 17th-century addition to the right has straight principals and a collar. The formerly threaded purlins were replaced in the late 20th century. Some reused timbers appear in the converted former farmbuildings at the left-hand end. The right-hand ground-floor end room and roofspace were not inspected.