Livaton Farmhouse Including Garden Walls Adjoining To North

Livaton Farmhouse, including garden walls adjoining to north

Farmhouse, built in the early or mid-16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements, and thoroughly refurbished in the early 19th century. Constructed of plastered cob on stone rubble footings, with cob and granite stacks; two of the stacks retain their original granite ashlar chimneyshafts with moulded coping. The roof is thatched.

The house follows an E-plan layout, with the main block facing north. It contains a four-room-and-through-passage plan with two service end rooms on the right. The outer service room is unheated, probably once a dairy, while the other serves as the kitchen and contains a large axial cob stack. To the left of the passage stands the former hall with a large lateral stack projecting forward. A small section of the upper end has been divided off as a storeroom. The left end room is actually the rear room of a two-room parlour crosswing projecting to the rear, which contains the remains of a newel staircase. An early 19th century stairblock projects to the rear of the passage. A third rear wing projects at right angles to the rear of the kitchen and dairy.

The hall was originally open to the roof and heated by an open hearth fire. The parlour wing, if not original, is very early and appears to have been floored and fitted with a stack from the beginning. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the mid or late 16th century and the hall was floored in the early or mid 17th century. The service end was rebuilt in the mid or late 17th century, with the rear wing added at the same time. The entire house was modernised in the early 19th century when the main stair was added. The building stands two storeys throughout.

Exterior walls retain sections of early 19th century plaster render, incised as ashlar with flat stucco architraves to windows and doorway. The front elevation has an irregular five-window arrangement of 19th and 20th century casements, some with glazing bars and others with rectangular panes of leaded glass. The main roof is hipped at each end. To the rear, the parlour and stair wing roofs are hipped while the service wing is half-hipped. Windows to the rear are mostly 19th and 20th century casements with glazing bars, though the hall features an early 19th century French window and a 16-pane sash above. The stair wing has a tall 18-pane sash; the chamber over the kitchen has a late 17th-early 18th century flat-faced mullion window; and the outer side of the service end wing has a 17th century oak two-light window with chamfered mullion.

The interior largely reflects the early 19th century modernisation. The passage and hall show only features of this date. The main stair is an open string stair with shaped stair brackets, stick balusters and mahogany handrail. The kitchen fireplace is blocked, but the crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with run-out stops and there are late 17th-early 18th century panelled cupboards. The service staircase is late 17th-early 18th century with early 19th century balustrade at the top. The dairy has plain chamfered crossbeams. The service rear block has a soffit-chamfered and straight-cut stopped axial beam; its fireplace is blocked.

The parlour crosswing is disused with limited access, but its three-bay roof is carried on cruck trusses (lower parts plastered over) with cambered collars. The main block roof is problematic as it all appears to be smoke-blackened. The hall truss is a form of cruck truss, probably 16th century, and genuinely smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire. The passage and service end roof, however, is mid-17th century, consisting of A-frame trusses with pegged dovetail-shaped collars, the principals lap-jointed onto wall posts; the blackening here results from leakage from the kitchen stack. An oak close-studded frame of late 16th century date is visible at the upper end of the passage. Other 16th and 17th century features remain hidden within the house, though the early 19th century modernisation represents an important phase in its development.

The front garden is enclosed by a low granite rubble wall, probably dating to the early 19th century.