Sanders

Sanders is an important surviving longhouse located at Lettaford, North Bovey, dating from the early 16th century with modifications and additions from the mid 16th and 17th centuries. It is constructed with walls of partly granite ashlar and partly granite rubble, with the ashlar work concentrated mainly on the shippon, extending across its gable end and a considerable part of its front wall. At the rear, the lower courses of ashlar continue from the gable end up to the passage, with a small area of ashlar also present at the upper end of the front of the house. A central tall granite rubble axial stack rises through the building with granite weathering, drip-course and capping. The left gable end has a rendered stack, probably a brick shaft with a stone stack below that projects slightly. The building is covered with a slate roof with gable ends, which drops to a lower level below the hall stack over the shippon.

The longhouse follows a traditional plan comprising a shippon, through passage, hall and inner room. Originally, the inner room had a chamber above it which was jettied into the open hall, which contained a central hearth. A low partition originally separated the hall from the passage, and there was likely no partition initially between the passage and shippon. In the mid 16th century, a further chamber was inserted over the passage with a partition separating it from the shippon loft space, supported on an internal jetty that carried it partly into the hall. During the 17th century, the hall was completely ceiled-in and an axial fireplace was inserted backing onto the cross passage. The outshut at the rear of the hall, possibly a dairy, also appears to be a 17th-century development based on its doorway. The inner room gable end stack may date from either the 17th or 18th century, and the partition dividing the shippon from the passage may not have been constructed until the 19th century.

The building is two storeys, positioned down a slight slope with the shippon at the lower right end and the house part to the left, built slightly into the bank at its gable end. The front elevation is asymmetrical, with two 20th-century 2-light casement windows with small panes. To their right is a two-storey rectangular projection with a very small single light window. Beside this is a probably original lean-to porch to the passage door, featuring a dressed granite shouldered-head doorway and stone seats inside. The front door to the passage is a 19th-century plank door set in an original wooden doorframe with a round-headed arch bearing a very worn chamfer. A doorway into the shippon immediately to the right of the porch has a dressed granite block surround integral with the ashlar stonework, with a chamfered lintel. To the right of this doorway is a window opening with wooden stanchion bars, and beyond it an original ventilation slit framed by granite ashlar. Above it is a similar smaller opening. The shippon gable end has one central slit on the ground floor and two in the gable on the first floor, all original. At the base of the wall is a square central drain opening. On the rear wall of the shippon is a further ventilation slit on the ground floor to the left of centre. The rear doorway to the passage contains a 17th or 18th-century plank door with old strap hinges. To the left of it on the first floor is a blocked loading doorway. To the right of the passage door on the first floor is a small 2-light 20th-century casement window with small panes. An outshut projects from the rear wall of the hall.

The interior preserves numerous original and early features, with the shippon particularly well-preserved in virtually its original state. It retains original stone cobble flooring with a central drain and, parallel to it at the lower end, on either side is a line of stones set in from the wall, each with a hole at the top to take a tethering post. Three heavy cross beams, un-chamfered with mortices for joists, span the space. A groove for a former short hip truss is visible in the gable end wall. One original roof truss survives in the shippon at its upper end, almost level with the lower side of the cross passage. It is a smoke-blackened raised cruck with curved feet, originally with threaded purlins but lacking a collar or tie-beam. Just beyond this truss is the first floor partition to the chamber above the passage.

Two other original roof trusses survive in the house section. One is an open truss to the higher side of the inserted hall stack, a raised cruck truss with curved feet, threaded purlin to the front, trenched to the rear, and a high collar with a central strut to the apex. The threaded ridge has a soffit chamfered. A more recent roof structure re-uses at the front an original purlin which is chamfered with run-out stops. The third original truss is a closed one framing the partition of the inner room chamber, with straight principals, a high collar and strut to the apex, and threaded purlins with a threaded ridge. These two trusses and the original timbers between them are smoke-blackened, with the closed truss blackened on the hall side only.

The through-passage has chamfered joists which originally formed the jetty at the lower end of the hall, now mainly cut off by the hall stack where they rest on a coved cornice. The back of the hall stack is of granite ashlar with a dressed plinth and cornice. The partition to the shippon is crudely constructed of studs and boards with a re-used 17th or 18th-century plank studded door. Above the partition is a chamfered head beam with hollow step stop but no mortices on its soffit for a partition. To the higher side of the passage adjoining the hall stack is a fragment of an earlier stud and panel partition with one post of a shouldered-head doorway and a head-beam for a screen above. The partition has been reconstructed within the past 10 years.

The hall contains a very large granite-framed fireplace with monolithic jambs and a roughly chamfered lintel, with a shallow shelf at the rear. On the right-hand side is an oven with a stone-framed opening. A central cross beam displays a deep chamfer with hollow step stops. An internal jetty at the higher end consists of joists which are chamfered with curved ends, resting on a solid wall constructed of dressed granite blocks and incorporating a keeping hole. The wooden door frame to the inner room is chamfered with mason's mitres. At the rear of the hall is a 17th-century wooden door-frame to the outshut, chamfered with a shallow cranked head. The projection at the front of the hall now contains a recently re-built wooden newel staircase.

The inner room has a slate slab floor. On its rear wall is a narrow window opening widely splayed, now blocked by a slate.

Sanders is a very important survival among the greatly diminished number of Dartmoor longhouses that retain unaltered shippons. In addition to this, the house part preserves a number of early and unusual features.