Warne'S Kitchen

Warne's Kitchen, Sampford Spiney

A longhouse now abandoned as living accommodation, originally dating from the early 16th century with significant additions from the early 17th century and later periods. The building is constructed in granite rubble with granite dressings and has dry slate roofs.

The structure comprises a hall and shippon (cattle shed), probably both of 16th-century date, with a hall and attic above a single-storied outshut which may be original. The entrance leads to a passage with no wall dividing it from the shippon, and a door to the left opens into the hall. The stairs, housed in a projection to the front of the hall, are a later addition. It is likely that the house was originally lower, probably the same height as the shippon. The fireplace position is uncertain; it may have been in a recess in the front wall of the hall, but the thick wall backing onto the passage suggests a fireplace in the more normal axial position. Doorways are staggered at front and rear, with a central drain in the shippon. An addition to the front right formed extra shippon space, while additions to the front left and a possible addition to the left side, along with a possibly later stair tower, complete the main structural phases.

The building is two storeys at the hall to the left, which has a stair tower with pitched roof and a small single light in a hollow-chamfered granite surround. The walls are battered and corbelled out under the stair treads, with a lean-to at the left return. Attached to the front and built around the stair tower is a single-storey addition with a single light in a hollow-chamfered granite surround, unglazed, and a door. This continues along the front of the building to form a porch with a stone bench to the side. To the right is a ventilation slit under the eaves and doors to the front and inner side. The hall possibly had a former upper window, with a slate dripstone remaining. The door to the passage has a granite surround with a 4-centred arch, hollow-chamfered with straight end stops, and a later door with reused strap hinges. The roof level is lower over the passage and shippon end.

At the right return, a lean-to has a small single light with a granite lintel. The shippon has a wall chamfered to the left, a central window at ground floor with a rough-cut granite surround, ventilation slits to the right and left, and another above in the gable. The rear has a loading door under the eaves to the left in the shippon and a separate entry to the shippon to the left of the rear of the passage, with a flat-chamfered granite lintel. The rear of the hall end has a small single light in a hollow-chamfered granite surround, formerly a 3-light granite hollow-chamfered 17th-century casement with mullions cut away and a 2-light wooden casement inserted.

The interior passage opens on its lower side to the shippon, with a wall inserted halfway across. The shippon contains six rough-cut tie beams and a central drain along the floor. A 19th-century roof with principal rafters, collars, and two rows of purlins spans four bays. In the rear wall at base is a horizontal granite opening, possibly for channelling water through the shippon. The floor is granite.

To the left of the passage, a granite doorway with a depressed 4-centred arched head and broach stops leads to the hall, with a door fitted with reused strap hinges. Two steps lead up to the hall, whose wall is approximately 90 centimetres thick. A small single light in the rear wall has a splayed reveal. The end wall has a small keeping hole. The front wall has two recesses formed by granite built out from the front wall, and a large keeping hole to the right of the doorway to the stair tower with a flat-chamfered timber lintel and chamfered jamb to the left, missing to the right. A former door opening to the front lean-to is blocked with a timber lintel remaining. A granite newel stair with a keeping hole in the wall of the stair tower serves the upper level. A 3-bay 19th-century roof spans the sleeping loft above.

An important building where the later accretions are of particular interest to the evolution of the structure. It forms a group with Eastontown.