North Wonson Farmhouse

North Wonson Farmhouse is a substantial farmhouse dating to the early or mid 16th century, with significant alterations in the late 16th and 17th centuries, modernisation in the late 19th century, and rebuilding of part of the lower end around 1930. The building is constructed of granite stone rubble with roughly shaped quoins, and the front is plastered; it features granite stacks, one retaining its original granite ashlar chimney shaft, and a slate roof. Originally, the plan was L-shaped. The main block faces south-east and comprises three rooms and a through-passage, built down a hillslope. An unheated dairy, terraced into the hillslope, is located at the uphill end of the main block. The hall has an axial stack backing onto the passage. A single-room parlour wing projects at a right angle from the left end, in front of the dairy and overlapping the hall; it features a projecting gable end stack and a curving newel stair turret projecting from its outer, uphill side. The main block was the original farmhouse, likely an open hall house, but evidence of this has been lost due to a complete roof replacement in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The hall fireplace was inserted in the mid 17th century, and the parlour wing was added around the same time, at which point the hall was repurposed as a kitchen. It may have originally been a Dartmoor longhouse, but evidence of the service end room was lost after its rebuilding and shortening around 1930. The house is now two storeys high. The front has an irregular two-window arrangement of 19th-century casement windows with glazing bars, one more window on each floor being visible on the inner side of the parlour wing. Most of these windows appear to be set within original window embrasures, and the parlour window has a 17th-century granite hoodmould carved with the initial 'A' on both labels. The original granite arch doorway to the passage has a depressed 2-centred (almost segmental pointed) head and a hollow-chamfered surround, leading to a 19-plank door. The dairy includes a 17th-century two-light granite-mullioned window. Internally, the service end room is a rebuild of around 1930, and the lower passage screen has been removed. The large hall fireplace is granite, with a soffit-chamfered and step-stopped oak lintel, and a secondary oven to the rear, the housing of which projects into the former passage. Two hall crossbeams have deep soffit chamfers with step stops. An early to mid 16th-century round-headed oak doorframe is set within a low stone rubble crosswall at the upper end of the hall. The dairy crossbeam has plain soffit chamfers. The parlour was modernised in the late 19th century, with no original carpentry detail visible, and the parlour fireplace is blocked. Remains of the newel stair are blocked within a cupboard under the 19th-century stair in the parlour. A late 17th–early 18th century plank door is attached by H-L hinges. The roof throughout is likely late 17th–early 18th century, consisting of a series of A-frame trusses with pegged and spiked lap-jointed collars.