Woodland Farmhouse

Woodland Farmhouse, Little Torrington

This is a farmhouse dating from the second half of the 15th century, with modifications made in the 17th century, extended in the 19th century, and altered in the 20th century. The walls are of rendered stone rubble, exposed at the front porch, beneath a hipped asbestos slate roof. There are two stone rubble axial chimneys with dripcourses; the right-hand one has a brick shaft.

The original plan likely comprised three rooms with a through passage, with the lower end to the left. The house originally would have had an open hall, probably with a central hearth, though no direct evidence of this survives. The hall is now heated by a stack at its upper end, and the date of insertion of this stack and the ceiling is unclear. The fireplace has been blocked and the ceiling beams are very plain, suggesting the stack may predate the ceiling, which could be quite late. In the second half of the 17th century, a two-storey porch was added at the front of the passage. The inner room is unheated, but a 16th-century doorway leading into the chamber above suggests its ceiling might predate that of the hall. The lower room contains a 19th-century insertion stack in its end wall, with a narrow room likely added in the 19th century beyond it. Substantial 20th-century modernisation involved blocking the rear passage doorway, removing the partition between hall and passage, and inserting a staircase at the rear of the lower room and passage. A completely new roof was installed and the old timbers removed.

Externally, the house presents two storeys with a symmetrical five-window front of early to mid-20th-century three-light casements. The central two-storey porch has a segmental arched rubble doorway with a 20th-century glazed and panelled door. Above is a much weathered coat of arms. The rear elevation has mostly 20th-century windows, apart from a 17th-century two-light chamfered wooden mullion on the first floor to the left of centre and an early 19th-century sixteen-pane sash below it.

The interior contains exceptional features. At the front of the passage is a wide early 17th-century roll and hollow moulded wooden doorframe with carved stops and a contemporary studded oak door with fleur de lys hinges. The square draw-bar holes survive both inside this door and at the former rear doorway to the passage. The most remarkable feature is the wide 15th-century ogee-headed wooden arched doorway into the hall, decorated with a quarter-roll moulding that has raised fleurons carved upon it. The ceiling beams in the hall are very plain and appear quite late. On the first floor is a 16th-century four-centred arched wooden doorframe leading into the chamber over the inner room. In the room over the hall, on the stack, is a plaster coat of arms of the Copplestone family with strapwork surround and winged angel's heads to either side, probably dating from the early 17th century. The Copplestone family occupied Woodland from the 15th to the 18th century.

Despite internal alterations, the unusual features and good quality of those that remain make this house important.