Moortown Farmhouse

SX 68 NE GIDLEIGH

3/175 Moortown Farmhouse - - II

Farmhouse. C16 origins with major late C16 and C17 improvements, some C19 modernisation .Granite stone rubble with large dressed quoins, front is roughcast; granite stacks, both with their original granite ashlar chimney shafts with moulded coping; asbestos slate roof (formerly thatch). Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south-east and built down a gentle hillslope. Inner room parlour at the right (uphill) end with gable end stack. Hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage and there is a stair turret projecting to rear at the upper end of the hall. Unheated service room at the downhill end but there is no apparent evidence for its use as a shippon. Roof was not available for inspection at the time of this survey and (if the original still survives) it would be this which would povide evidence of the early development of the farmhouse. Nevertheless the layout is enough to indicate that it was originally an open hall house. It is now 2 storeys with C20 outshot to rear of hall. Exterior. Irregular 4-window front, all C20 casements with glazing bars and contemporary door left of centre to front of passage. Roof is hipped to left, gable-ended to right. Rear passage doorway has a plain oak frame of indeterminate date which contains an attractive old studded plank door with strap hinges. Good interior is both well-preserved and only superficially modernised. The service end room is divided into dairy and stores. The crossbeams here are plain and maybe C19 replacements (maybe indicating its conversion from a shippon to domestic use). The hall has a large granite ashlar fireplace with chamfered surround; probably late C16 - early C17. Now a C19 staircase rising alongside. The upper end crosswall is lined with C17 small-field oak panelling above bench level. The hall was floored in the C17 with soffit-chamfered and step-stopped crossbeams. The half beam at the upper end is set a short distance out from the crosswall there which might indicate an internal jetty. In the rear wall an oak door-frame with segmental head leads to an unusual granite stair. It begins rising towards the back of the wide but shallow turret then soon divides to rise each way up the wall giving separate access to hall and inner room chambers. The inner room parlour has a roughly-finished crossbeam and the fireplace here is blocked by a C20 grate. The first floor, and therefore the roof structure, was not available for inspection at time of survey, but should be examined before any alterations in case C17 joinery detail remains there. The roof itself may be late medieval, C16 or C17.

Listing NGR: SX6649189137