Hatchwell Farmhouse

Hatchwell Farmhouse is a house formerly functioning as a longhouse, dating from the 16th century or possibly earlier, with a wing probably added in the late 16th or early 17th century. A lean-to was later added to the west side of the former shippon.

The building has roughcast solid walls, probably of stone, with the north gable-wall constructed of exposed granite rubble. The roofs are asbestos-slated, with the shippon roof lower than that of the house part. On the centre of the ridge of the main range, at the right-hand end of the house part, stands a well-made granite chimneystack with integral thatch-weatherings and tapered top. Below it on the gable-wall is a series of drip-stones protecting the shippon roof. The wing gable-wall contains a projecting stack with offsets, thatch-weatherings and tapered top, covered with roughcast.

The plan follows the usual longhouse arrangement: hall and inner room to the left, shippon (now a kitchen) to the right. The front door opens into the upper end of the former shippon with the back of the hall stack on the left-hand side. A cross-passage formerly existed, but the partition between the former shippon and hall has been removed. The shippon had a separate entrance formerly. At right-angles to the rear wall of the main range, at the junction of hall and shippon, is a further room, probably designed as a parlour, with a gable-fireplace.

The house is two storeys; the lean-to is single-storeyed. The main west front is two windows wide, with all windows being 20th century. The shippon end, clearly of different build, is set back slightly and has no upstairs windows on this side. The former shippon door, immediately to the right of the main door, has been blocked and a window inserted.

The hall fireplace features a heavy, chamfered granite lintel supported at the left-hand end by a well-cut, rounded corbel; the right-hand side has been rebuilt, probably to insert an oven which has since been filled in. Above the lintel, visible in the room above, is a good relieving arch with the space between it and the lintel filled with rubble masonry. The back of the fireplace towards the shippon is of granite ashlar, although it lacks the plinth and cornice often found in Dartmoor houses. This fireplace is of remarkable quality for a longhouse, especially one as small as this; corbelled fireplaces are extremely rare in Devon farmhouses of any kind.

The upper-floor beam of the hall is chamfered with step-stops. Next to the stack, at the junction with the wing, is an open, winding stone staircase built up against the stone wall with the shippon; the wall protrudes at an awkward angle into the shippon, as if it were a later insertion.

At the upper end of the hall a stone wall, rising only the height of the ground storey, divides off the narrow inner room. Towards the hall this wall contains a rectangular recess halfway up, and a similar feature exists in the gable-wall of the inner room. The wing room has a chamfered upper-floor beam with worn bar-stops. The gable-fireplace has granite jambs and lightly-chamfered granite lintel. To the right of it is a recess like those in the hall and inner room. The roof-spaces were not inspected, but trusses have plain, old feet rising from the wall-tops.

The house is reputed to have deeds dating back to the 17th century, formerly held by the owner at Dockwell Farm, Widecombe. The shippon was used for housing calves as recently as the early 1960s.