Middle Venton Farmhouse

Farmhouse, former Dartmoor longhouse. Early or mid 16th century with major later 16th and 17th century improvements.

This is a small, irregularly built structure of roughly-shaped granite blocks laid to rough courses with large quoins and cob wall tops. The front of the house section is plastered. Granite chimney stacks are topped with 19th and 20th century brick. The roof is thatched, though corrugated iron has replaced thatch over the shippon.

The building follows a 3-room-and-through-passage plan typical of Dartmoor longhouses, facing south-east and built diagonally across a gentle slope. The rear and uphill end are terraced into the hillside. At the uphill left end sits the inner room (parlour) with a projecting gable-end stack. The hall features a large axial stack backing onto the passage. The shippon is now used for storage.

The roof structure was completely replaced, probably at a higher level, in the 17th century, removing most evidence of earlier development. The house likely began as an open hall heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was inserted in the mid or late 16th century. The inner room was refurbished and probably enlarged as a parlour in the mid 17th century. The hall was floored about the same time and thereafter used as a kitchen. In the 20th century the passage front doorway was blocked and a new doorway inserted into the parlour, now used as the kitchen.

The house is 2 storeys. The exterior of the house section displays an irregular 3-window front of 20th century casements with glazing bars. The present doorway towards the left end contains a 20th century door behind a contemporary gabled and slate-roofed porch. The ground floor right window blocks the original passage front doorway. The shippon section to the right is of exposed granite. A cow door sits immediately to the right of the blocked passage doorway. Towards the right end is a window, probably a dung hatch over a drain hole. The right end wall of the shippon has two slit windows and a hayloft loading hatch in the rear wall. The rest of the rear wall is blind except for the passage rear doorway. The roof is gable-ended.

Interior features include the oldest element in the house: an early or mid 16th century oak doorframe from the passage to the hall, round-headed with a chamfered surround. The hall has a large granite fireplace with an oak lintel that is soffit-chamfered with one pyramid stop; the oven was relined with 19th century brick. The hall crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with step stops. The inner room fireplace has a granite fireplace with a soffit-chamfered oak lintel, and its crossbeam is roughly soffit-chamfered. Ground floor partitions are stone rubble; those on the first floor are timber framed. The first floor partition between the hall and inner room chambers may incorporate an original truss. The roof from end to end is carried on 17th century A-frames with pegged lap-jointed collars. The shippon has roughly-finished crossbeams.

Middle Venton is one of the minority of Dartmoor longhouses where the shippon remains unmodernised, essentially preserved as it was when used as a cow byre, although the drain has been buried.