North Hill Farmhouse

North Hill Farmhouse

House, former Dartmoor longhouse, dating from the late 16th to early 17th century. The building was thoroughly refurbished and extended around 1930. The walls are constructed of plastered granite, except for the porch which is built of dressed granite blocks of various sizes. It has granite stacks with granite ashlar chimney shafts and a slate roof.

The house is L-shaped, with the main block built down a slope facing south. It follows a 3-room-and-through-passage longhouse plan. The inner room parlour is terraced into the slope at the uphill west end and contains an end stack with a newel stair alongside. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage and a disused newel stair in the rear wall. Around 1930, the inner room was enlarged at the expense of the hall. The rear of the through-passage was blocked by a dairy, which may have been an original feature. A 2-storey gabled porch stands in front of the passage, featuring a 2-centred outer arch with chamfered surround, probably dating from the late 16th or early 17th century. The shippon was converted to domestic use around 1930 and has a rear lateral stack of that date. At the same time, a rear block was built at right angles to the rear of the inner room, containing the present main stair and two service rooms with an axial stack between them. Since the roof has been replaced, the sequence of historic development can no longer be established from the roof structure. The hall was probably originally open to the roof but is now 2 storeys throughout.

The exterior features a regular 2:1:1 window arrangement of circa 1930 casements containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The windows are built with mullions moulded to look 17th-century in style. The front passage doorway contains a 20th-century door. Similar fenestration appears around the rest of the house, with first-floor windows to the rear as gabled half dormers. Both blocks are gable-ended.

The interior of the main block retains much of its original character in the domestic section. The hall contains a large granite fireplace with a chamfered surround. The housing of the side oven projects into the passage. There is an oak crank-headed doorframe to the disused stair turret and another similar but much-mended doorframe alongside the fireplace to a blocked doorway to the passage or former dairy. At the upper end of the hall stands an oak plank-and-muntin screen under a soffit-chamfered crossbeam. It has chamfered muntins with step stops and includes another crank-headed doorframe. The positioning of this screen makes the hall unusually small and the inner room large, suggesting it has been moved. In the inner room there is a boxed-in beam or RSJ thought to mark the original position of the screen. The fireplace in the inner room is also granite with a chamfered surround. Alongside is a stone round-headed doorway to the newel stair which has stone treads. The crossbeam here has shallow soffit chamfers. The former shippon was much rebuilt around 1930, with the open fireplace, crossbeams, and roof all dating from that period.