Milking Parlour At Old Middlecott Farmyard

SX 78 NW CHAGFORD MIDDLECOTT

4/136 Milking parlour at Old - Middlecott Farmyard

GV II

Milking parlour, formerly the farmhouse here. Late C15-early C16, converted to agricultural use in the C19 (maybe earlier) and modernised in C20. Granite stone rubble laid to rough courses with dressed quoins and topped with cob; corrugated iron roof (formerly thatch). Plan: long block built down a slope and facing north-east onto the farmyard. Stable block (q.v.) is attached to left (north-western) end. The interior of the original house here has been completely gutted but it seems that it was a 3-room-and- through-passage plan and probably was a Dartmoor longhouse with the shippon at the lower (south-eastern) end. It was a hall house open to the roof. There is no sign of any fireplaces. Opposing doorways, though rebuilt, may represent the site of the through passage. The inner room end is partitioned off as a calf house. Exterior: the putative front passage doorway has a rubble-walled porch with monopitch roof. A shed covers the left end and there is a single window to right. It and windows to rear are C20. There is no obvious sign of original openings in the walls. Roof is gable-ended to left and half-hipped to right. Interior is that of a C20 milking parlour except for the remains of the original roof. Much of the roof has been replaced but of the 6 trusses only the upper end 1 appears to have been completely replaced. The rest remain to some extent varying from a single surviving cruck post over the hall to 1 virtually complete truss over the shippon. All are raised crucks. There is 1 true cruck blade. The rest are face-pegged jointed crucks and some have locking strips halved and pegged into their sides. At the apex is a yoke and setting for a square set ridge (Alcock's apex type H). There are no trenches or mortices for purlins. Presumably they were pegged onto the backs of the principals. The timbers are stained and only arguably smoke- blackened. This milking parlour has the shell and remains of the roof of a late medieval farmhouse, probably a Dartmoor longhouse. It forms part of an attractive group of traditional Dartmoor farmbuildings with the stable (q.v.) and barn (q.v.). Middlecott is a Domesday settlement. Source: Manuscript notes and elevation of truss by Commander E H D Williams (July 1980) in NMR.

Listing NGR: SX7159386154