West Burrow Farmhouse

West Burrow Farmhouse

A longhouse dating to circa 1500 with a 17th-century addition and 20th-century alterations, located at Bratton Clovelly. The building is constructed of rendered cob and rubble walls with a thatched roof and corrugated iron cladding, hipped at the left-hand end and gabled at the right-hand end and rear wing. There are three stacks: two axial brick stacks (one to the main block, one between the rear wing and outbuilding extension) and a projecting rubble stack at the right gable end.

The house follows a longhouse plan with a shippon at the lower left end divided by a passage from the hall and inner room. A full-height solid wall separates the shippon from the passage, with the shippon having its own external doorway adjoining the passage door. The existence of an original internal door between the two indicates they are contemporary, though the cattle may always have used a separate entrance. A solid wall also divides the hall and inner room, continuing on the first floor, though it is unclear if the inner room is original. The early type of roof truss and doorways suggest the house may originally have had an open hall with central hearth, though roof access is not available to confirm this. Both hall and inner room fireplaces appear to be 17th-century alterations, which probably also included the addition of a hall projection at the front. The rear wing of one small room behind the inner room is also 17th-century; its fireplace is now blocked, making the date of its stack unclear. If originally unheated, the room was likely a dairy; otherwise it may have been a kitchen. In the 20th century, the ceiling beams of the hall and inner room were replaced, the rear door of the passage and the passage-to-shippon door were blocked, and the stairs were altered, probably retaining their original position at the rear of the hall.

The house is set down a slope with the shippon at the lower left end. It is a two-storey building with an asymmetrical three-window front with a hall bay projecting to the right of centre. Late 19th or early 20th-century casements with glazing bars are on the first floor; ground floor windows are similar but later 20th-century. At the centre is an original doorway to the passage with a chamfered wooden frame having a shouldered and cranked head almost forming a four-centred arch, probably with a 19th-century plank door. To its left is a doorway into the shippon, probably original but very plain with a rough wooden lintel. Towards the left end of the shippon is a very small square window opening, and on the first floor to its right is a probably inserted loading doorway. The gable end of the shippon has a stone-framed drainage hole at ground level and a slit opening above on either side. At the rear to the left is a very small wing which has been extended by probably 19th-century outbuildings.

The interior remains relatively unaltered apart from the insertion of 20th-century ceiling beams in the hall and inner room. The small rear room has closely spaced, fairly insubstantial ceiling beams, chamfered with hollow step stops. The hall fireplace has a chamfered wooden lintel with worn stops. Built into the inner wall of the hall is a creamer (originally used for making cream), which has been blocked underneath but the recess above remains. The inner room fireplace has a chamfered wooden lintel with straight cut stops. Above it is a small wooden panel ornately carved with a grotesque face and vine motif either side. To the right of the fireplace is a cupboard with tall double doors, each of three moulded panels with a lozenge shape carved in high relief on each, also moulded. The doors are not flush with the wall but project and probably come from another house, as the carved wooden panel may also do; both appear to be good quality 17th-century work. At the lower side of the passage is a heavy chamfered wooden door frame with a two-centred arch and an original wide oak studded door, now blocked off on the shippon side. The passage has cross beams with a narrow chamfer and hollow step stops. Over the hall are a pair of face-pegged jointed crucks, though roof access is not available to see further construction details or evidence of smoke-blackening. The shippon roof does not retain original timbers but has rough 19th-century principal rafters with collars lapped and pegged to the principals. Its floor has been concreted.

This is an unusual survival of a longhouse with an unconverted shippon positioned several miles away from Dartmoor, rather than in a typical moorland or moorland fringe location. Though not a "true longhouse" in the purest sense because a solid full-height wall exists between shippon and passage, the building appears to be a late medieval house with integral accommodation for animals and humans and internal access from the domestic end to the animal end, and could be defined as a "developed longhouse" plan.