Upcott Barton Farmhouse Including Adjoining Front Garden Walls and Gate-Piers to North-West and South-West, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon

Description

CHERITON FITZPAINE
SS 80 NE
7/10 Upcott Barton farmhouse
- including adjoining front
garden walls and gate-piers to
6.2.52 north-west and south-west (formerly
- listed as Upcott House)
II*
Farmhouse, former Manor House. Early C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements.
Snecked volcanic stone tending towards random rubble in places; exposed volcanic
stone stacks, the rear 2 topped with C19 and C20 brick; coated slate roof. 3-room-
and-through-passage plan house facing south-west with service room at right (south-
east) end. The plan was slightly altered in early C17 when left end extended to
accommodate a dog-leg stair between hall and inner room. Gable-ended rear block
behind stair was probably added at same time. Lateral stacks project to rear of
service room and hall and inner room has projecting end stack. Service room is 2
storeys, passage, hall and inner room are 2 storeys with attics in roofspace. Main
block is gable-ended with roof stepping down to service room. Service end of front
apparently much rebuilt in late C19 and contains 3 ground floor and 1 first floor
windows of that date. The passage door is immediately to left. It has an early C16
volcanic stone almost rounded arch with ogee-ovolo moulding and roll stops (part of
the arch has been replaced by a section of chamfered oak). The door is probably a
C19 replacement. The slate-rofed and gabled porch is a C20 rebuild of the C17
original and incorporates the richly-carved crank-headed fascia of the original and a
carved post. A photograph of the original by A W Everett is in the West Country
Studies Library. Hall, stair and inner room/parlour have a regular but not
symmetrical 4-window frontage of early C17 fenestration of unusually high quality.
There is a stone stripmould at first floor level across the top of the ground floor
windows. The hall has a pair of 3-light windows, the stair to left a 2-light window
and the inner room a 4-light window with central King mullion. The first floor
fenestration is symmetrical. There are 4-light mullion-and-central-transom windows
either side of a pair of 3-light mullion-and-upper transom Ipswich-style windows,
that is to say the upper of the wide central light has a semi-circular moulded oak
rib with keystone. All the mullions have external ogee moulds and internal ovolos,
and include iron casements (many replaced circa 1980) and have small panes of leaded
glass including patterned sections in the Ipswich windows and with much green-tinged
early glass surviving. The left end gable has a similar 3-light window at first
floor level, and towards the right corner is a reset fragment of a plain capital of a
half-engaged column which was found this century in buried foundations close to this
end. Rear includes C19 casements; rear passage door has segmental head and late C17
solid bead-moulded oak frame including a probably contemporary plank door with
internal plain strap hinges; the projecting service room and kitchen stacks; and
projecting wing with C19 casements.
Good interior. The earliest structure survives at the service end which has 4-bay
arch-braced roof probably supported on jointed crucks. The lower passage screen is
rubble-built towards the rear but has an early C17 3-door oak screen. The rear door
(central to the passage) is a flat-arched door to the kitchen which has plain
chamfered crossbeams and a large blocked fireplace. The front doorway to a service
lobby has a chamfered surround with scroll stops and a plank-and-ledge door with 12-
panel front. The central door, a late C17 door with 2 long upright panels, opened to
a straight flight service stair with turned balusters (a smaller version of the main
stair described below). From landing a C16 oak doorway to end chamber which has a
late C17 coved plaster ceiling over the arch-braced roof. It has a moulded plaster
cornice. The hall, stair and inner room was apparently rebuilt in early C17 and
includes some late C17 improvements. Late C17 bolection panelled screen from passage
to hall which is otherwise lined with early C17 small-field oak panelling, some re-
set. Fireplace is boarded but said to be Beer stone with flat-arched head and
enriched spandrels. From hall to stair is richly moulded oak doorframe with ornate
urn stops identical to another from stairs to rear block. Very fine early C17 oak
dog-leg stairs have square newel posts (the lower one enriched with sunken panels)
and with ornate shaped caps, closed string and unmoulded flat handrail both with
modillion cornices, and heavy turned balusters. The panelled dog gate with top
grille of turned uprights may be contemporary. Late C17 2-fielded panel door with
bolection architrave and H L hinges from stair to inner room/parlour. This room was
refurbished with high quality work in late C17. It is lined with bolection panelling
with dado and box cornice. The wide panel over the fireplace features an original
landscape painting although the left side has been overpainted in late C18 to include
a gentleman depicted as the artist. The ornamental plaster ceiling is a late example
of a hollow-rib ceiling with geometric pattern around a central pendant and with
moulded plaster sprays and arabesques made up of foliage, fruits and flowers and also
symbols of the Holy Trinity such as the 3 fishes and the 3 hares. The parlour and
hall chambers both have late C17 bolection chimney pieces and contemporary ornamental
plaster ceilings, the former has a moulded cornice and the remains of a bay leaf
roundel containing rosettes interrupted by cherubs heads and encircling a Tudor rose,
the latter with a bolection rib design and central rosette. The early C17 9-bay roof
has A frame trusses with pegged lap-jointed collars. The attic over the parlour has
a small early C17 stone fireplace with oak lintel and rebated ogee surround. The
attic partitions include some early and late C17 joinery including a plank door with
applied 9-panel front and strap hinges with fleur de lys terminals.
The front courtyard is enclosed by high walls. From left (north-west) end of the
house a plastered cob wall with corrugated asbestos pitched coping extends north-
westwards and returns forward in C18 brick including a pair of large square-section
gate piers with soffit-moulded volcanic stone caps. From right (south-east) end a
similar C18 brick wall extends forward and includes a pair of identical gate piers.
Upcott Barton is a very important house because of the extent and quality of the
surviving C16 and C17 work. In C15 manor belonged to Nicholas Radford, lawyer, M.P.,
and Recorder of Exeter, who was murdered here in 1455 by a mob led by Thomas
Courtenay, son of the Earl of Devon. Thomas Westcote in his views of Devonshire
records the Prowse family succeeding the Radfords and ironically followed in the C16
by a younger branch of the Courtenays. In the late C17 it passed through the female
line to John Moore of Moore, near Tavistock. Several members of these families are
buried in the north chapel of the parish church of St. Matthew (q.v.) which includes
a very fine mural monument to John Moore (died 1691).
Sources: T Fella The Parish Church of St Matthew, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Crediton Devon
(1977).

Listing NGR: SS8680908504

External Links

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