Sampford Manor And Attached Barn And Front Wall

Sampford Manor and Attached Barn and Front Wall

A farmhouse with attached barn, set around a courtyard fronted by a granite wall. The house is early 16th century in origin, possibly incorporating even earlier building, but was substantially refronted and altered in 1607 (dated over the front door). Further alterations occurred in the 18th century, 19th century, and 20th century. The barn dates to the late 17th or early 19th century, though it incorporates earlier materials. The front wall and doorway were reset around 1880.

The buildings are constructed of granite and slatestone rubble with granite dressings, granite quoins, and slate roofs. The main range has a granite ashlar end stack to the right and rear lateral stacks with shaped caps and cornices.

The original house followed a three-room and through-passage plan, with a wide passage, shippon (cattle shed) to the left, hall and inner room to the right. The passage was not open to the shippon, as shown by surviving wall remains. The 1607 alterations created a new entrance with a lobby formed in the former hall and extended the right end by one bay. The original passage door remains as an entry to the shippon. A rear wing of one-room plan, unheated, dates to probably the late 17th century and was accessed from the original inner room. The addition made in 1607 to the right was originally a single heated room, which was divided around the mid-19th century to form a rear stair hall.

The front elevation is two storeys and five bays. At ground floor level are three granite three-light windows with hollow-chamfered mullions and surrounds, hood-moulds and 20th-century casements. To the right is a 20th-century four-pane light, and the second window from the left has a four-centred arched roll-moulded doorway with frieze, dated 1607 with the initials RA (for Robert and C Atwell), with a hood-mould decorated with flowers on stops and foliage in spandrels. The first floor has three irregularly spaced gabled dormers, each containing a single-light granite casement with hollow-chamfered detailing, hood-mould and 20th-century glazing. Dressed granite quoins appear to the left; rough-cut granite quoins mark the joint between the original house and the end bay of 1607 to the right.

Attached to the front right is a small gabled outhouse with a flat-arched opening at ground floor and a single light in the gable end with flat granite lintel and slate cill. Set back to the left is the former passage entry, with a granite pointed arch that is chamfered and step-stopped, with two former lintels set in the wall to its left. The upper level has a rebuilt wall and a roof lower than the main range, above which rises an asbestos slate-hung gable end. A lean-to in the angle with the front barn range has lost its roof.

The barn has two blocked ventilation slits to the right, a cart entry and two lower ventilation slits to the left (one retaining an iron stanchion). The front wall extends some 5 metres in front of the house and stands about 1½ metres high with granite coping. It has an off-centred reset four-centred arched granite doorway, roll-moulded with roundels in spandrels and a hood-mould, with a gable above bearing a shield and the initials JPH. A reset round-arched granite opening stands to the left. At the right end, an attached outhouse has a rear door and blank gable end. The gable end of the main range has a single hollow-chamfered granite light at ground and first floor left, and a similar two-light granite casement at first floor right; the wall is chamfered to the right.

A lower two-storey rear wing to the right has no windows at its right end. Its gable end has a low-set two-light window in a 20th-century frame; the inner side is asbestos slate-hung with two-light casements at ground and first floor, each light of six panes. The rear of the main range has a gable with a stack featuring fireplace and oven projections at its base, a 20th-century single light at first floor right, and a single light in a hollow-chamfered granite surround at upper level to the right. The wall is corbelled out to the right, possibly the site of an early stair. The rear of the lower end has a four-centred arched plain granite opening, with a small single-storey addition to its right; the end wall was rebuilt in the late 20th century with a four-light ground floor window and a three-light first floor window. The shippon end has a former wide opening with a timber lintel remaining, visible internally, and a small blocked opening under the eaves. The roof is of 20th-century construction over four bays and formerly had a stream channelled in at the rear wall.

The rear gable end of the barn has a ventilation slit at upper level and large granite quoins that diminish in size towards the top. The front gable end has irregular segmental-headed granite openings at ground and first floor, probably reset from an earlier building, a large ventilation slit at ground floor left and in the gable end. The outer side of the barn has a granite segmental-headed doorway to the left and irregularly spaced ventilation slits. The interior of the barn has a six-bay 20th-century roof with splayed reveals to the openings.

Interior

At the front entry, a doorway to the right has a granite four-centred arch, roll-moulded with carved leaves in spandrels and step stops, but no hood-mould, and dates to the 1607 alterations. A step up leads to the room to the right, originally the inner room, which has seven chamfered axial beams to the ceiling. A fireplace at the rear has a flat granite lintel with an upper timber lintel extending through to the former hall to the left. The wall to the room to the left (the former hall) has a keeping hole and a former doorway, now blocked, with a four-centred arch, hollow-chamfered and step-stopped, in granite (originally between the hall and inner room). A similar door to the rear gives access to the rear wing, probably reused, and a similar door to the right provides entry to the end room of 1607.

The end room was remodelled in the mid-to-late 19th century, with a partition wall to the rear dividing off a rear dog-leg stair. The gable end contains a fireplace in granite, segmental-headed, hollow-chamfered and roll-moulded with leaves in spandrels.

From the former inner room, a step down leads to the former hall, which has a slate floor. A rear fireplace has a cambered and chamfered granite lintel. A cloam oven stands to the rear left, with a smoke chamber featuring granite walls to the right. The probable site of the original stair to the left is now a cupboard. The end wall originally backing on to the passage has two keeping holes, one with a door with strap hinges; a keeping hole also appears in the wall to the right.

The upper floors and roof are not accessible. It is said that the first floor gable end to the right has a plainer granite fireplace.