Outbuilding About 20 Metres South East Of Rowbrook Farmhouse

WIDECOMBE-IN- SX 67 SE THE-MOOR 5/198 Outbuilding about 20 metres - south-east of Rowbrook Farmhouse - II

Outbuilding, formerly a longhouse. C17 or earlier, with added lean-to. Granite rubble with massive, roughly-dressed quoins. Slated roof. No chimneys, or evidence of where one might have been. Plan consists of 2 small domestic rooms to left of a cross-passage (which has no rear doorway) and a shippon to right. The latter is separated from the passage by a stone wall with massive stones at its base; the wall is not bonded to either of the outer walls and never seems to have contained a doorway. Just next to it in the rear wall, on the shippon side, is a rounded recess that may have contained a staircase. To the right of this is a blocked doorway, opposite to the present front doorway into the shippon and it seems quite possible that the original through-passage was here, absorbed into the shippon at some later date along with part of the hall. 2 storeys. 2-window front to house part; none of the windows contain frames or glazing, and all are boarded up. The window left of the cross-passage door has a chamfered granite lintel with run-out stops, but it does not fit the opening, even allowing for the right-hand side having been blocked in. Doorway to left of it, into former inner room, has a similar lintel which fits rather better. Doorway into cross-passage has an old granite porch roofed with a sheet of corrugated iron. Shippon doorway, to right, has a plain wood lintel. To right of this an added lean-to, used latterly as a stable. In the left-hand gable- wall the house part has a small, hollow-moulded granite window in the ground storey; it originally had a mullion in the centre, and in each jamb is a hole for a horizontal bar. In the upper storey is a slit window (now blocked), a remarkable feature for one of the main walls of a house. At the back the ground appears to have been built up to second-storey level, probably when the upper part of the building was converted into a storage loft. The wall contains several old loft doors, but there is also a slit window, possibly related to a former staircase. In the right-hand gable-wall the shippon has 3 ventilation slits at ground-storey level. Interior has few features. There is a stone wall containing a blocked doorway between the former inner room and hall. The latter has a chamfered upper-floor beam with plain joists; the beam has rotted at either end and is supported by inserted corbels. Below the beam, a very flimsy partition forms the left-hand side of the cross-passage; the front door must originally have opened straight into the hall. There is a drain running the full length of the shippon and a line of stones along the rear wall, defining a feeding trough. The building is known to have been used as the farmhouse until the late C19, and continued as a dwelling well into C20. Sources: information from the present owner and Miss E Gawne.

Listing NGR: SX6843172498