Kingshead Farmhouse

Kingshead Farmhouse is a building of probable early 19th-century origin, though with a chimney that may date back to the 17th century. It is situated in Widecombe-in-the-Moor and includes a shippon at the left-hand end, which may be the remnant of an earlier longhouse. The construction is of granite rubble, with a slated roof, hipped at the left-hand end. The shippon has a corrugated iron roof. A large granite ashlar chimney stack with a tapered top is located to the left of the ridge, next to the hip, and a smaller granite ashlar stack is on the right-hand gable, likely dating to the 19th century.

The farmhouse has an unusual double-depth plan, with the rear section under a catslide roof. The main rooms are divided into two spaces separated by a passage leading to a staircase at the back. The main living room is on the left, with a parlour to the right. Behind these rooms, under the catslide, is a dairy with a stream channelled through it. A wide through-passage at the left-hand end has its own large fireplace backing onto the main living room; there is no doorway into the shippon, but a blocked borrowed light is present. The shippon is lofted.

The front of the house has four windows, with 19th-century wood casements with glazing bars, except for two sash windows on the second storey to the right. The three right-hand bays are symmetrically arranged around a centrally positioned doorway with a plank door and a gabled wooden hood above. The left-hand bay is slightly set back and has a doorway with a plank door and a granite lintel made from a re-used stone with a large round moulding on the lower edge. The shippon is set well back and has a doorway at the right-hand end with a loft door above. On the ground storey, an inserted window is flanked by two blocked ventilation slits, both featuring concrete lintels. A large granite corbel is present at the left-hand corner of the upper storey, below the eaves. The gable wall features a ventilation slit at the top. An original drain outlet is at the base of the wall.

At the rear of the shippon is a short range of pigsties built out at right angles, and in front of them is a circular feeding trough with a raised central piece cut from a single piece of granite. The interior of the house has limited original features, including an old bench fixed to the wall next to the passage in the living room. The through-passage has an old cobbled floor and a granite trough at the rear, with a plain granite lintel over the fireplace. The interior of the shippon has been concreted to create a 20th-century milking parlour.