Description

MORETONHAMPSTEAD
SX 78 NE
1/90 Lowton Farmhouse
-
GV II*

Farmhouse. Early-mid C16 with late C16/early C17 and C18 alterations. Rendered
granite rubble walls. Thatched roof, hipped to left and gabled to right end,
raised above right-hand first floor windows. Gable end stack to lower end is
rendered, probably brick. Axial stack has brick shaft on granite base.
Complex plan and development. 3-room-and-through-passage plan with heated lower
room to right, hall with fireplace at the unusual position at the inner end and
formerly unheated inner room. Originally hall and inner room were open to the roof
with central hearth in hall. Lower room always had chamber above. In the late
C16/early C17 this room evidently had high status from the decorative plaster
ceiling it was given. Also at this stage inner room and hall ceiled. Probably in
C18 the front wall was built out at the higher end forming a bay at the higher end
of the hall and enlarging the inner room, possibly to incorporate a staircase.
Rear outshuts behind hall passage probably circa late C19. Barn extension at right
angles behind lower room.
2 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-window front of probably C20 2-light casements with
glazing bars. Door to passage at right of centre, is C20 plank and part glazed.
To left of centre the wall is splayed forward and continues at that plane up to the
left gable end. The splayed section of wall has a window at both ground and first
floor level. At far left is single storey C20 wing with gable end chimney. At the
rear the house is recessed at the inner room. Outshut behind passage and hall. At
the point where the barn joins the house wall is an angled brick stair projection.
Good interior with some unusual features. The passage has plank and muntin screen
either side, muntins are chamfered with high hollow step stops. On the hall side
is a chamfered head beam. Hall ceiling has heavy central cross beam, chamfered
with bar and hollow step stop. Half beam above fireplace is identical but where
the bay begins has been extended. Hall fireplace has chamfered wooden lintel with
traces of straight cut stop to the left.
The roof over the inner room consists of 2 trusses with lapped and pegged collars.
The other side of the hall stack are 3 original trusses, very substantial with
cambered collars morticed into them and threaded purlins. The first one is over
the lower end of the hall and is a closed truss lightly smoke-blackened on the hall
side with wattle and daub infilling and stave holes to the collar. Although the
original trusses over the rest of the hall and inner room have been removed the
purlins and ridge remain and are lightly smoke-blackened. The other side of the
closed truss the roof timbers are clean. Over the lower end in the roof space is a
moulded plaster ceiling inserted over the lower room chamber, which has had another
ceiling inserted beneath it so is now completely concealed from the rest of the
house. The plaster ceiling has a central geometrical design of moulded ribs, a
moulded cornice and moulded edges to the plastered trusses. This ceiling is
particularly unusual for a farmhouse on the Dartmoor fringes and is in a fairly
good state of preservation.
The importance of this house lies not only in the survival of unusual and good
quality features such as the plaster ceiling and the screens passage but also the
unusual plan and development variation on the typical 3-room-and-through-passage
layout.

Listing NGR: SX7432385967

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534796

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)