Hayne House

Hayne House is a house dating back to the 16th century, with possible extensions in the 17th century, a porch added or largely rebuilt in the 19th century, an extension to the north front in about 1902, and an east wing added in 1919. The house is constructed of chert stone random rubble, with a roughcast gable end, and Ham stone dressings. It has plain clay tiled roofs with coped verges to the west gable end, and external stone stacks, one with an added chimney, one to the left of the hipped roof porch, and others at the end of the original dwelling and centre of the east cross wing. The original layout is likely an open hall house which was ceiled and extended to the west, with a central porch added to create a symmetrical frontage. A corridor range on the north front has resited the main entrance.

The south front has two storeys and an attic in the cross wing, with a symmetrical 2:1:2:1 bay arrangement. A full-height hipped roof porch sits in the centre of the main block. The windows are mostly late 19th and early 20th century, incorporating 3-light and 4-light hollow chamfered stone mullioned windows. A 15th-century doorframe with interesting carved spandrels (not local in origin) and a carved square tablet bearing the insignia of Richard II – a heart with a coronet and scroll flanked by twisted columns with a carved face above – have been reset. A blocked small lancet with decorated spandrels is found in the west gable end. The north front is a good example of Tudor style from the early 20th century. Some wooden depressed Tudor arch head mullioned windows are set into a wall adjoining the property, possibly originating from the house.

Inside, the house has been extensively altered in the early 20th century. A chamfered peaked head doorframe to former stairs, beside a fireplace in the east gable end, is the earliest datable feature. Another depressed head doorframe provides access to a bedroom over the hall. The interior includes three Tudor style chimney pieces, possibly incorporating original stone work, and roughly worked beams to the hall (now a dining room), with exposed early 20th century joists. The symmetrical south front, with its central porch, suggests that much of that frontage was built or remodelled in the 17th or 18th century. It is likely the house was altered in the 19th century, prior to the extension of the north front. A memorial in Otterford Church commemorates Alexander Hill of Hayne, who died in 1620.