North Forder Farmhouse

North Forder Farmhouse is a late medieval farmhouse, originally a Dartmoor longhouse, situated in Gidleigh. It is constructed of granite rubble with large dressed quoins, featuring a granite stack with an original granite ashlar chimney shaft and a thatched roof. The original plan comprised a three-room-and-through-passage layout, facing southeast and built down a steep hillside; the inner room is deeply terraced into the slope. The hall has an axial stack backing onto what was formerly the passage, now blocked. The shippon, at the downhill right end, has been adapted for domestic use.

The exterior has an irregular arrangement of windows, with three on the ground floor and two on the first floor, all 19th-century casements with glazing bars. The house is low in height, with the eaves rising in the centre section to accommodate the first-floor windows. A possible 18th-century plain oak door frame contains an old plank door, and the roof is half-hipped to the left and hipped to the right. A first-floor casement is present in the left-end wall. The right-end wall is currently blind but appears to contain a blocked vent or dung hatch, with a blocked drain below.

While the interior was not accessible for inspection, it appears to have undergone only minor and superficial modernisations in the 20th century. The low roof suggests a potentially late medieval or 17th-century roof structure. It is recommended that a thorough internal survey be conducted before any modernisation or alteration to avoid damage to early fabric or detail. This farmhouse is considered a classic, largely unmodernised example of Dartmoor farmhouses dating from the late 15th, 16th, or 17th centuries, and is particularly attractive.