Description

SS 70 SE CREDITON HAMLETS

2/89 Spence Combe Farmhouse including 26.8.65 2 adjoining cob garden walls to south II

Farmhouse. Mid-C16, modernised and extended in late C17 and again circa 1880. Plastered cob and rubble; volcanic stone and brick stacks; wheat reed thatched roof. L-shaped building with main block facing south with much altered 3-room-and- through-passage plan with inner room at left (west) end, a C17 rear block at right angles behind inner room. Gable end stacks to main block and axial hall stack backing onto former passage, and inner lateral stack to rear block. Circa 1880 passage removed by construction of new fireplace to service room backing onto hall stack and at same time new entrance hall provided in upper end of hall with 2 storey gabled porch to rear. 2 storeys throughout. 6-window front with doorway of circa 1880 left of centre. Top of door is glazed with margin panes and 2 panels below; with glazing bars, panelled reveals, overlight doorcase with incised pilasters and moulded entablature. Adjacent to right is contemporary canted bay window with large pane sashes with margin panes. Other ground floor windows are 12-pane sashes but that to right of bay window is blind with painted glazing (near site of putative, original through passage door). All 6 first floor windows are late C17 timber mullion-and-upper-transom windows with flat faces and glazing rebates and internal shallow ogee mouldings. All have leaded rectangular panes, most have 2 iron stanchions per fixed light, and some have original iron casements with 4 horizontal bars and catches. The stack projecting from left (west) end has exposed volcanic ashlar stack and chimney shaft, and behind, the rear block has another late C17 mullion-and-transom window with leaded panes and ferramenta at first floor level. Another 2 similar late C17 windows to left of rear elevation are half-dormers with gabled roofs containing C19 shaped bargeboards. The C19 rear porch has panelled door with rectangular fanlight and gable has wavy openwork bargeboards and pendant. Roof of rear wing is hipped. Inside, the former hall (including present entrance hall) has high quality, mid C16, 12-panel, intersecting beam ceiling. The oak beams are richly moulded and each panel contains 4 plain joists at right angles to those in neightbouring panels. Contemporary oak floor boards show. Elsewhere most of interior refurbished circa 1880 but a section of a C16 oak plank-and-muntin screen is reset in the rear block; it apparently derived from first floor front. 6-bay roof of main block is original but can only be examined in roofspace where the well-finished carpentry is similar in style from end to end. Only a couple of side pegged jointed crucks can be seen below. The first floor was mostly ceiled at collar level from beginning. Late C17 3-bay roof to rear block comprising plain A-frames with pegged lap-jointed collars. The rear block formerly extended further northwards. From each end of frontage long plastered cob walls on rubble footings with pitched thatched roofs extend southwards on either side of garden. The left (west) wall includes a small gazebo against the house, 2 bee boles and a series of cob buttresses on the unplastered rear side. Associated with Spencer family who are first recorded here in 1333 (Place Names of Devon).

Listing NGR: SS7935401653

External Links

• Wikidata Q26463698

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Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)