Cowhouse Approximately 3 Metres East of Gooseford Farmhouse is a Grade II listed building in the Dartmoor National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 March 1988. Cowhouse.

Cowhouse Approximately 3 Metres East of Gooseford Farmhouse

WRENN ID
pitched-eave-sedge
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Dartmoor National Park
Constituency
Central Devon MP: Sir Mel Stride (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
4 March 1988
Type
Cowhouse
OS grid reference
SX 675 917
Coordinates
50.71, -3.87704
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The cowhouse, located approximately 3 meters east of Gooseford Farmhouse, is a former farmhouse dated 1641. It features architectural elements consistent with this date, although it was partly rebuilt when converted from a farmhouse to a cowhouse around 1900. The structure is built from granite stone rubble with large, roughly-dressed quoins and sections of large coursed blocks of granite ashlar. It has a disused granite stack and a corrugated iron roof, which was formerly thatch.

The building has a three-room plan and is situated across the hillslope facing south. The internal layout has been significantly altered, and a more detailed examination of the fabric is needed to fully understand the original arrangement. The right end room contains an end stack, while it is believed that an axial stack served the other rooms, though no evidence of it remains. The cowhouse is two storeys tall.

The exterior features an irregular three-window front, with the windows currently blocked. The ground floor right window has been enlarged to serve as a doorway. A plaque inscribed "Anno Do 1641," flanked by labels inscribed "OL," has been reset high in the wall to the right of center. The roof is hipped at both ends, and the rear elevation has been similarly altered, with a central doorway that has been rebuilt. Above this doorway is the only original window remaining, an oak three-light window with ovolo-moulded mullions. A second door to the right features an oak 17th-century doorframe with an ovolo-moulded surround that has been reset to face inwards.

Inside, the cowhouse has plain chamfered crossbeams, and the fireplace is topped with a similarly-finished oak lintel. The roof consists of seven bays with A-frame trusses and pegged lap-jointed collars. E Lega-Weekes, who visited the house in 1896 before its conversion, described it as having "a gabled porch with a pointed entrance-arch of moulded granite, retaining a very heavy oak door, studded with monster nails, above which was a table dated 1641 and a mullioned window, on whose dripstone-corbels appeared the letters CL."

Local climate

Cowhouse Approximately 3 Metres East of Gooseford Farmhouse sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 960 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 75% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 70% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 37 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 66% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Middle Gooseford Farmhouse Grade II 185 m
  2. Throwleigh Barton Grade II* 1.2 km
  3. Ash Bridge Grade II 1.2 km
  4. East Week Cottage Grade II 1.2 km
  5. Village Cross Grade II 1.2 km
  6. Wayside Grade II 1.2 km
  7. Church House Grade II* 1.2 km
  8. East Week Cottages Grade II 1.2 km
  9. Throwleigh War Memorial Grade II 1.2 km
  10. The Old Rectory Grade II 1.2 km