South Creaber Farmhouse

SX 68 NE GIDLEIGH

3/180 South Creaber Farmhouse - - II

House, former farmhouse. Probably C16 origins with C17 improvements, modernised and partly rebuilt circa 1920, some modernisation work of circa 1980. Granite stone rubble including a section of large coursed blocks of granite ashlar, the rebuilt service end is plastered; granite and brick stacks, the hall stack has its original granite ashlar chimney shaft; slate roof (probably thatch before circa 1920). Plan and development: 4-room plan house facing north-west and built down a gentle slope. The uphill right end room (at the south-west end) is a kitchen and has a gable end stack. The next room (right of centre) is a former dairy with a corridor along the rear connecting the kitchen to the hall. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the entrance hall which contains the staircase. At the left end is a parlour with gable end stack. It is evidently a house with a long and complex structural history. It was originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house and is reputed to have been a Dartmoor longhouse. The section of ashlar work stops with a straight join at the upper end of the dairy. The kitchen was probably added in the mid C17. The entrance hall and left end was rebuilt circa 1920 replacing the former through passage and shippon. Now 2 storeys throughout. Exterior. Irregular 3-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars; the dairy window was enlarged circa 1980. The right end is hidden behind a service wing rebuilt circa 1980. Left of centre is the doorway in the position of the front passage door which now lies behind a circa 1980 rubble porch with hipped roof. The main roof is gable-ended. The rear garden front has an irregular 5-window front of late C19 and C20 casements and including some circa 1920 horned 4-pane sashes. The blocking of the rear passage door also shows in the plaster. Interior. The oldest feature in the house is the hall fireplace; probably late C16- early C17; granite ashlar with hollow-chamfered surround. The dairy and hall show no carpentry details. The kitchen has a mid C17 soffit-chamfered and scroll-stopped crossbeam but the fireplace here has been rebuilt. Since the C17 plan form is preserved in the hall, dairy, kitchen section more of the early fabric may survive behind later plaster. The lower end is a complete rebuild of circa 1920 and the whole roof was replaced at the same time.

Listing NGR: SX6606587947