Ardonay Cottage And Barn Adjoining West

SX 79 SW DREWSTEIGNTON HILLMORHAY, Drewsteignton

5/116 Ardonay Cottage and barn adjoining west

GV II

House, former farmhouse, and adjoining barn. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements; part rebuilt as a barn in the late C18 or early C19. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings, parts rebuilt wholly in stone rubble; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 brick; thatch roof, replaced with corrugated iron over the barn section. Plan and development: 3-room-and-through-passage plan house facing south. The inner room at the right (eastern) end has a gable end stack backing onto the adjoining property, Charisma Cottage (q.v). The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. Solid stone rubble full height wall on the lower side of the passage and the service end is now occupied by the barn. The original house was a late medieval hall house probably open from end to end and heated by an open hearth fire (the evidence is hidden in the inaccessible roofspace). The hall fireplace was inserted in the mid or late C16 and the house progressively floored over from the mid C16 to mid C17. The service end room was converted to a barn in the late C18 - early C19. It was used as an undertakers workshop within living memory. The inner room fireplace may have been inserted as late as this. Secondary outshots across the rear. House is 2 storeys and barn is open to the roof. Exterior: the house has an irregular 3-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars. The wide passage front doorway at the left end of the house section contains a C19 plank door in a plain solid frame. The barn section to left contains 2 C19 plank doors, the larger double doors at the left end. The roof butts the adjoining property to right and runs continously with that of the adjoining property to left. Interior: early C16 oak shoulder-headed doorframe from passage to hall and headbeam of another survives in situ in passage rear doorway. Hall has a large granite ashlar fireplace with a soffit-chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel. Its side oven was inserted or relined in the C19 The crossbeam and the muntins of the upper end oak plank-and-muntin screen are chamfered with step stops, upper end bench below. No carpentry detail shows in the inner room and the fireplace here has a C19 grate. The lower part of a true cruck truss shows on the lower side of the passage and another is boxed in the framed crosswall between hall and inner room chambers. The roofspace is inaccessible but smoke-blackened timber and thatch is suspected. The barn has a late C18 - early C19 roof of A-frame trusses with pegged and spiked lap- jointed collars. Ardonay Cottage is one of the oldest houses in Drewsteignton Village. Furthermore it forms part of a group of attractive listed buildings in the village.

Listing NGR: SX7349590841