Lower Tor Farmhouse

Lower Tor Farmhouse is a house formerly used as a longhouse, dating from the 16th century or possibly earlier, with later additions. It stands at Widecombe-in-the-Moor.

The building is constructed of granite rubble with patches of ashlar, particularly noticeable at the upper (west) end of the south front. The roof is thatched and half-hipped at the lower end, with an added lean-to on the north side covered in corrugated asbestos. A granite chimneystack with tapered top sits on the centre of the ridge. A larger projecting granite stack with offsets and plain top is positioned in the upper gable-wall. A rubble stack, probably a much later addition not shown on 20th-century published plans, stands against the north wall of the former shippon.

The plan follows the typical longhouse arrangement of shippon (now the kitchen) below a through-passage, with hall and inner room above. An additional cross-passage adjoins the through-passage on the hall side. This cross-passage is likely an early feature, as the 16th-century hall stack backs onto it in the traditional manner, yet there is no evidence of a doorway at its north end. The south end has an added porch dated 1707. The through-passage has an early 16th-century doorway at its north end. These features have led scholars of vernacular architecture to treat the house as representing an important stage in the evolution of the longhouse from its medieval form, though it remains unclear whether the existing plan results entirely from early 18th-century alterations.

The building comprises two storeys with single-storey additions. The south front is five windows wide. All windows are 20th century, except those in the porch. The porch is two-storeyed, with a round-arched, moulded granite doorway on the ground storey inscribed "IT 1707" in the spandrels. The upper storey contains a two-light granite-mullioned window, probably of the same date. Attached to the south-west corner of the porch is an open-fronted stone well house with a thatched roof.

On the north front, much of the house is concealed by the lean-to, but the edge of a stair turret with a slit window is just visible at the left-hand end. The rear doorway of the through-passage has a chamfered, round-headed granite arch with one worn stop, probably pyramidal. The former shippon has a single ventilation slit in the ground storey and a loft door to the left of the upper storey.

Internally, the former shippon has very heavy, unchamfered upper-floor beams. The beam next to the through-passage has been underbuilt with a stone wall (not shown on published plans). On the other side, another stone wall divides the through-passage from the cross-passage. The back of the hall stack, constructed of granite ashlar with a cornice at the top, rises on the upper side of the cross-passage. The hall fireplace is large with chamfered granite jambs and lintel. A relieving arch is visible in the bedroom above, but the space below it contains only stone rubble rather than a specially cut granite piece. Upper-floor beams in the hall are chamfered. A staircase in the north wall, level with the stack, has winding stone steps. The inner room and bedroom above both have fireplaces with plain granite lintels. Roof timbers were replaced during the 18th to 20th centuries.

The house is referenced in several published works on vernacular architecture, including M W Barley's "The English Farmhouse and Cottage" (1961), E Mercer's "English Vernacular Houses" (1975), and J Thirsk's edited "The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol.IV 1500-1640" (1967), though the last-named work incorrectly describes it as Higher Tor.