Courtyard farm buildings at Selworthy Farm

Courtyard farm buildings at Selworthy Farm

A group of farm buildings arranged around a rectangular courtyard, dating from the 18th to late 19th century. They comprise a barn of probable 18th-century date, a late 19th-century east range, late 19th-century cattle shelter sheds, and several small additions. Alterations and repairs have continued into the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Construction is predominantly random sandstone rubble with some timber cladding to the shelter sheds and stone and brick dressings. The barn roof is thatched, probably originally hipped at its west end and modified to half-hipped when the adjacent shelter shed was added. The remaining buildings have gabled roofs except for a hipped north-west corner, all covered with double roman tiles.

The courtyard slopes gently towards the south-east and is laid with cobbles with a series of stone-lined drains. A brick water trough stands towards the centre. The buildings are all single storey. Single-phase shelter sheds define the west, south and part of the north side of the yard. The barn occupies the north-east corner with lean-to additions on its north, south and east sides. A range extending south from the barn encloses the east side.

The barn at the yard's north-east corner probably dates to the 18th century and is double height. Differences in masonry colour and quality, a vertical joint in the south elevation and changes in roof profile indicate historic alterations. Repairs in brick, cob and render date from 2000. The north elevation is built partly of cob with an unglazed window having an internal wooden shutter and two full-height wide openings, the right-hand one being a later insertion. Between these openings is an early 20th-century brick lean-to with a pair of timber doors and a two-light window. The east gable wall is blind, and an early 20th-century stone rubble lean-to with a north doorway has been added at the north-east corner. The south courtyard elevation has two wide doorways slightly raised above ground level, aligned with north wall openings and corresponding to internal threshing floors. A late 19th-century open-fronted lean-to shelter runs along most of the south elevation with a corrugated metal sheet roof carried on circular rubble piers. It contains a wooden feed trough on a rubble stone base. The two left-hand bays are enclosed with wide timber planks forming a separate stall, with an east door of wide planks and a hayrack fixed to the external barn face.

The east range is a long rectangular building of stables and cowshed extending south from the barn to enclose the east courtyard side. It appears on the tithe map of 1841 and was substantially rebuilt in the late 19th century. The east elevation has a doorway at the far right (north) with a plank door off its hinges, and no other openings. A doorway appears in the south gable end. Four open-fronted bays in the northern half of the courtyard elevation have been infilled with timber boards and concrete blocks except for bay three which is gated, with a 20th-century window in the blockwork to the right. The south half is stone rubble with an off-centre entrance having a chamfered pegged door surround and timber lintel, with a timber-framed window of six glazed panes above wooden ventilation slats on either side.

The single-storey shelter sheds are stepped down the hillslope descending southward and are of similar form and construction. Outward-facing elevations are blind except for a pedestrian doorway with ledged and braced plank door at the west end of the south shelter shed, paired doors at the south-west corner and an infilled doorway at the north-west corner. The east gable end of the south shelter shed has a deep stone plinth with weatherboarding above and a doorway approached by three stone steps. Its courtyard elevation is open-fronted and divided into six bays by timber uprights on stone pads carrying the roof, each bay having a wooden five-bar gate. Several bays of the west shelter shed have been infilled with wooden boards and its north end has masonry walling with brick quoins either side of a slightly larger opening forming a separate stall with a late 20th-century metal gate. The north shelter shed abuts the earlier barn to the east and has an L-shaped roof profile. Its stone-built courtyard elevation has a wide full-height opening with brick jambs and a later timber post supporting the roof.

The barn interior has no internal upper floor and is open to the roof, divided into two chambers by an axial stone rubble wall of several building phases with a doorway between them. In the adjacent bay to the east is a horizontal drive shaft and fly wheels for transferring power, probably from a portable engine to farm machinery. The drive shaft continues into the 20th-century addition on the barn's north side. No west wall exists; the western half opens onto the north shelter shed. Much roof structure was renewed in 2000 following collapse of the eastern third, though some historic timbers were retained. Trusses are pegged at the apex, strengthened with tie beams and notched into short timber pads on the wallplate. There are two rows of staggered trenched side purlins, a diagonal ridge piece and slabbed common rafters.

The south end of the east range contains four modern loose boxes with a cobbled floor and brick drain running lengthways and one widthways level with the entrance. A doorway in the stone wall to the left leads to a tack room with modern fittings, separated from the former cowshed by a concrete block wall. Pegged king-post tie-beam trusses and a double row of purlins (one just above the wall plate) run throughout.

The shelter sheds are interconnected by feeding passages, each having a longitudinal wooden feed trough on a low stone rubble wall, iron tethering rings and cobbled floors overlaid in places with concrete. The south shelter shed is divided into stalls by timber partitions on stone plinths, some rendered. Towards the north end of the west shed is another timber partition with a separate stall beyond. Each shed roof has pegged king-post tie-beam trusses and two rows of purlins (one just above the wall plate).