Easdon Farmhouse

Easdon Farmhouse

Two cottages, formerly a farmhouse. Probably built in the early 16th century, modified and extended in the later 16th and early 17th centuries, then converted to two cottages at a much later stage, probably in the 19th century. The building has rendered granite rubble walls, three granite rubble chimneys with drip-courses (the axial one rendered), and a gable end chimney to the wing with granite capping stones. The roof is slate with gable ends.

The plan shows a complex development, somewhat obscured by the later conversion into two cottages. Originally it was a three-room house with a through or cross-passage. Evidence of an internal jetty at the higher end of the hall suggests that the hall at least was originally open to the roof, though the original roof structure no longer survives, making it difficult to determine whether the jetty is an original feature or was inserted later when the house may have initially had only low partitions. The inner room remained unheated and its very rough beams and small window opening suggest it was used for storage. The hall fireplace lintel and ceiling beam have different stops but probably both date from the late 16th or early 17th century. When the hall was ceiled, a newel staircase was inserted into its rear wall, but this has since been removed or blocked. Probably in the early 17th century, slightly later than the ceiling-in of the hall, a rear single-cell wing was added behind the inner room and the upper end of the hall. Few features are visible in it, though a large fireplace probably exists, leaving its purpose unclear. Probably when the land was appropriated by another farm, the house was converted into two cottages: the left-hand cottage comprised the heated lower room and the through passage, which was widened to form a larger room with the rear door blocked if it originally had one. In the right-hand cottage, the plan of hall, inner room and wing is preserved intact.

The building is two storeys, with an asymmetrical three-window front and four windows on the ground floor. All windows are two-light 20th-century casements with glazing bars except for the ground floor right window to the inner room, which is single light and 19th century. The centre left ground floor window probably occupies the position of the original passage doorway. The right first-floor window above the inner room is a half dormer. To the right of centre is an early 20th-century gabled porch rendered with weatherboarding in the gable and a 20th-century plank door. A similar door is to the left of centre. There are 20th-century casement windows to the inner face of the wing and 20th-century plank doors on either face of it. On the rear face of the main block, in the angle with the wing, is a bulge in the wall marking the position of the newel staircase. The rear of the main range has a 20th-century glazed doorway to the left of centre and 20th-century casement windows.

The interior of the left-hand cottage is much altered with no original features evident. In the right-hand cottage, the hall and inner room preserve many of their early features. The axial fireplace would originally have backed onto the through passage. It has a straight wooden lintel, chamfered with straight cut stops and unchamfered granite jambs. There is an oven on the right-hand side with an arched opening, brick floor, stone walls and roof, and its iron door and frame are still in situ. The hall floor is of granite slabs. There is a heavy cross beam with deep chamfer and hollow step stops. At the upper end of the hall is a plank and muntin screen, the muntins chamfered with diagonal cut stops which run fairly high up to take a bench underneath. Although the original bench or brackets do not survive, there is a horizontal groove on each muntin marking the position of the bench. The original doorway is at the left-hand end of the screen, and its three-centred arch and jambs are chamfered with diagonal cut stops. Above the screen is an internal jetty with joists projecting approximately 12 inches into the hall, curved at the ends with chamfers and stops. The inner room is unheated and has rough axial beams less substantial than in the hall. The screen has only a rough finish on this side. A thick wall between the hall and the wing signifies that it was a later addition.

The roof was renewed in the 20th century with trusses bolted together.

This house is important not only for the high quality of its features, particularly the screen and internal jetty, but also for their state of preservation and their value in indicating the intermediate phases of modernisation in the development of the late medieval house.