Lower Withecombe Farmhouse

Lower Withecombe Farmhouse is a house and former farmhouse, probably of 16th or 17th century origins but thoroughly refurbished and much rebuilt in the early 18th century, with modernisation in the 19th century. It is built of plastered granite stone rubble with granite stacks and plastered chimney shafts, beneath a thatch roof with slate to the outshots.

The building is a long block built down a slope and facing south-west, containing a 3-room plan: a kitchen terraced into the hillside at the right (north-west) end, a dining room in the centre, and a parlour at the left (south-eastern) end. The main stair lies between parlour and dining room. Both parlour and dining rooms have rear lateral stacks, and the kitchen has an end stack. A service stair alongside the dining room stack is now disused and has been replaced by a stair in the secondary rebuilt outshot across the back of the kitchen and dining room. An extra first floor chamber at the left end is built on top of the terrace. A secondary single storey service block projects at right angles in front of the original kitchen.

The layout suggests the house may have developed from a late medieval 3-room-and-through-passage plan, with the main stair positioned where the original passage stood and the dining room where the original open hall was located. It may even have been a Dartmoor longhouse with a shippon where the parlour now stands. However, no fabric appears to be earlier than the early 18th century. The main house is 2 storeys.

The exterior features a 5-window front. The 3-window section at the right end is symmetrically arranged around the main door to the main stair, which contains a 19th century 6-panel door and overlight with glazing bars, flanked by a probably late 19th to early 20th century gabled granite rubble porch. This is flanked by sash windows: a late 19th century horned 4-pane sash to the right and an early 19th century 16-pane sash to the left. Further left is a 20th century oculus. All the first floor windows are 19th century casements with glazing bars. Two old metal insurance plaques are fixed to the wall alongside the window over the porch. The roof is hipped to the right and gable-ended to the left. Because of the rise of the slope, a doorway to a loft in the roof space is located at the left end.

The interior was modernised in the 19th century, but this appears to have been superficial and most of the early 18th century fabric survives intact along with a great deal of contemporary detail. The best room is the parlour. Although the windows, door and chimneypiece have been replaced, the panelling and ornamental plaster ceiling are early 18th century. The panelling is fielded and in 2 heights with a moulded dado, and includes a round-headed shell cupboard. The chimneypiece is flanked by fluted Doric pilasters with a frieze of triglyths and guttae, with a box cornice around the room. The ornamental plaster ceiling is very good, featuring a square frame enriched with egg and dart containing a moulded rib enriched with 2 rows of oak leaves. The corners are filled with trailing fruiting plants and small birds moulded in high relief. The centre is divided into 4 truncated cone-shaped panels defined by moulded ribs enriched with a single row of oak leaves, each containing a moulded vase of flowers. Early 18th century ornamental plasterwork such as this represents the end of the tradition of Devonshire plasterwork, and 18th century examples are much rarer than 17th century examples.

The main stair is a straight flight turning at the top and dividing to the 2 principal chambers, with risers decorated by horizontal strips of shallow mouldings. The hall fireplace was rebuilt in the 20th century, but the disused stair alongside still has a fielded 2-panel door. Elsewhere on the ground floor the joinery detail is 19th century, but on the first floor all the doors are early 18th century fielded 2-panel doors. The secondary stair reuses the top couple of steps from the early 18th century service stair. The roof structure is early 18th century, comprising a series of A-frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars.

Although the plan form suggests earlier origins, nothing earlier than the early 18th century is evident. The house contains an important example of early 18th century ornamental plasterwork, one of the latest which is still firmly in the indigenous Devon tradition.