Lower Puddicombe Farmhouse

Lower Puddicombe Farmhouse

Farmhouse, dating from the early or mid 16th century with major improvements in the later 16th or 17th century, followed by later superficial modernisations. The building has plastered walls, probably cob on stone rubble footings, with stone rubble chimneys topped with 19th and 20th century brick; the hall stack retains its granite ashlar chimneyshaft. The roof is now covered with corrugated asbestos, though it was formerly thatched.

The house follows a 4-room-and-through-passage plan, facing south-east and built across the slope. At the north-eastern end is an unheated inner room (formerly a dairy) with a secondary through passage at its outer end. The hall contains a large axial stack backing onto the main through passage. Two rooms occupy the service end: the inner service room has a projecting rear lateral stack, and the left end room has an end stack. Although the roof space was not available for inspection at survey, the owner claims it is smoke-blackened, suggesting that the original house was open to the roof from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire. The hall fireplace was probably inserted in the late 16th century, and the house was progressively floored between the mid 16th and mid 17th centuries. The house is now two storeys with a 20th century stair in the hall, though an alcove indicates the original newel stair was on the front at the lower end of the hall. The service end was probably converted to a kitchen in the early or mid 17th century; the end stack may date from this period, though the service end was divided into two rooms probably in the 19th century.

The exterior presents an irregular 3-window front of mostly late 19th and 20th century casements, though the oldest window—a late 18th to early 19th century casement on the first floor centre—contains rectangular panes of leaded glass. A late 19th to early 20th century door serves the main passage, and a lean-to outshot stands in front of the hall. The roof is gable-ended and steps up from left to right at the hall stack. The rear elevation shows similar fenestration.

Interior features include a blocked fireplace in the hall; one hollow-chamfered jamb of a large granite ashlar fireplace remains visible beneath a 20th century grate. The passage chamber jetties into the hall flush with the front of the stack, and evidence of an upper end jetty appears where the inner room chamber oversails the stone rubble crosswall at that end. This crosswall includes a probably late 16th to early 17th century oak doorframe with chamfered surround, though the stops have worn off. The hall is floored with a crossbeam and half beams, all with soffit chamfering and bar run-out stops. The outer service end room, probably the former kitchen, has a massive soffit-chamfered axial beam, and though its fireplace is plastered over, the owner reports finding a large side oven.

On the first floor, an oak segmental-headed door frame connects the passage chamber to the hall chamber. A second oak doorframe with chamfered surround and scroll stops leads from the hall chamber to the inner room chamber; this frame contains an oak plank door hung on strap hinges with fleur-de-lys finials. Two of the possible four roof trusses are visible; they are side-pegged jointed crucks. The others are boxed into partitions. The roof space was not available for inspection, but the owner reports the trusses are smoke-blackened and therefore probably early or mid 16th century in date.

This is a significant multi-phase Devon farmhouse, with much of its 16th and 17th century structural detail likely concealed behind later plaster.