Description

CHRISTOW DRY LANE, Christow
SX 88 NW
2/104 Wells House including garden wall
and well to south east
GV II
Former farmhouse including garden wall and well. Circa late medieval origins,
remodelled and extended in the C17 with a further remodelling of the C19. Cob and
stone, colourwashed and rendered ; slate roof, hipped at left end of main block and
carried down as a hip over the wing at the right end 2 chimneys in an axial stack
and front right corner stack to main block,axial stack and front right corner stack
to wing, the axial stack with a granite shaft with tapering cap ; brick stack to rear
outshut.
Plan: Complex evolution and plan. The house now faces approximately east and
consists of a single depth block at the left (south) with a 2-storey rear addition of
narrow service rooms; the right (north) end of the house is deceptive; it was
originally roofed at right angles to the main block and projected beyond the rear
(west) wall of the main block but has been truncated and re-roofed on a north/south
axis over a late medieval roof on a west/east axis. Presumably this was the original
range although it is difficult to determine the plan from what is left. A larger
room to the east is heated from a C19 or even C20 fireplace back to back with a
massive blocked granite fireplace in the narrow rear service room ; this may be the
late C16/early C17 hall fireplace, the hall originally extending further to the
west. If this were the case the present east room would the former passage and lower
end of the medieval house, the present main block being a C17 2 room parlour or
kitchen wing added at right angles to the medieval house and subsequently extended by
a probably C19 1 room plan addition at the left (south) end. The 2 storey rear lean-
to is probably also C19, giving a C19 kitchen on the ground floor. The house is
entered to right of centre into a stair hall taken out of the south room of the
medieval house ; second stair with granite steps rises from the main block on the
rear wall and is contained within the 2-storey rear block. Tiled lean-to at right
end.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 3+1 window front slightly set back at the right
end. Front door with porch with slate roof carried on post in the angle where the
right end is set back. C20 fenestration of 2- and 3-light casements with glazing
bars, C20 French window ground floor left.
Interior: The front right room has renewed ceiling timbers and a rebuilt fireplace,
the fireplace broken into the rear of a C16 or C17 granite stack with a blocked
fireplace with chamfered granite jambs and a granite lintel. The C17 main block, to
the left is now 1 room on plan (formerly 2 rooms) with chamfered scroll-stopped
crossbeams (one boxed-in), open fireplace, reduced in size with stone rubble jambs
and a C17 chamfered stopped lintel ; dog leg granite stair with early C19 balusters
rises from the rear wall with a chamfered stopped timber lintel over the doorway.
The extreme left hand room is a C19 addition, the fireplace broken into the rear of
the C17 stack.
Roof: Not fully inspected at time of survey (1987) but evidently of considerable
interest. 1 cruck truss survives over the right end of the house, the feet are
visible in the ground floor rooms and descend to the stone footings, the apex is said
to be smoke-blackened. Timbers over the main block, at right angles to the sooted
roof are probably C17, said to be pegged, of large scantling but not smoke-blackened.
A granite capped garden wall to the garden east of the house incorporates timber
doors to a well facing the road and an iron pump on the garden side.
An evolved house of medieval origins : group value with the outbuilding to the north
east and walled garden to the north.

Listing NGR: SX8308185395

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26457460

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings