Range Of Buildings, About 10 Metres North Of Cotley Farmhouse

Range of Buildings, About 10 Metres North of Cotley Farmhouse

A range of derelict buildings comprising a farmhouse, barn, and smithy (now used as a store). The farmhouse and barn date to the late medieval period, while the smithy was built in the 19th century.

Farmhouse

The farmhouse is constructed of random rubble local stone with a slate roof and a 19th-century brick stack on the right. The plan is uncertain but probably represents an open hall house facing south with a demolished parlour wing formerly in the south-east corner, now forming part of the barn. The house was later ceiled to create a two-cell plan with a cross passage, with the barn subsequently abutting the structure. The building is two storeys with three bays. Window openings in the two right-hand bays have quoins. On the first floor to the left, a two-light window with hoodmould remains from what was originally a four- or five-light hollow chamfer Ham stone mullioned window, now cut by an inserted 19th-century three-light wooden window. Two three-light wooden windows under wooden lintels in poor condition occupy the right side. The ground floor to the left has a brick infill to a rebuilt window opening with the medieval square terminal of the hoodmould surviving beside an inserted three-light wooden casement. The wall breaks forward slightly, featuring a good pointed arch stone chamfered doorway with an inserted plank door to the right. A truncated gable end of the cross-wing projects beyond, part roughcast and part forming the barn. A rear extension, opening from the kitchen, is said to mask a square-headed plain chamfer window originally unglazed at first-floor level, now blocked internally. A small stairlight is said to exist in the blocked gable end.

The interior, not fully inspected, is said to contain a framed through-passage partition to the kitchen, a gable stack with bressumer beam, and a doorhead cut into the north end with evidence of use as a curing chamber. A bread oven lies below. The ceilings of ground-floor rooms have been raised. On the upper floor, three jointed cruck trusses and a modified tie beam truss are visible. One cruck truss is closed with the remains of a shouldered doorway.

Barn

The barn is constructed of chert random rubble with a slate roof hipped at the east end. It is said to have an internal width of over six metres and a length of twenty-five metres. The structure is a seven-bay threshing barn with double porches. The entrance is in the north-west corner, with blocked doorways to the west leading into the farmhouse and to the south-west into a blocked projection. Subsidiary entrances exist at the east end. The interior, only partially inspected, is said to comprise at the west end (including the porch) four pairs of jointed cruck trusses with heavy collars and formerly windbraced. The three eastern pairs of jointed crucks are archbraced with trenched purlins. One pair is set directly below one of the crucks of the other type at the eastern side of the porch.

Smithy

The smithy, now used as a store, dates to the mid-19th century. It is built of red brick with a slate roof and a large external stack at the gable end. The building is a single cell with an entrance on the north front and a three-light window on the south front. Monopitch roofed extensions exist at the gable end. The interior has not been seen but is thought to have been a smithy.

Historical Context

The evolution of the barn and farmhouse cannot be fully understood without thorough internal inspection, and the farmhouse was in very poor condition at the time of survey in December 1985. This is a notable settlement. A later farmhouse, dating to the 17th or 18th centuries and much altered, stands about ten metres to the south but is not of special interest. Nineteenth-century farm buildings (not of special interest) form the foldyard on the north front. A large building, possibly of 17th-century date, stands about two hundred metres to the south-west. Cotley was formerly in Chardstock parish, Dorset, until the late 19th century, when it moved from Devon to Dorset in the mid-20th century.