Description

SX 6493 - 6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/237 Moorside

GV II*

House. Mid - late C16 with late C16 and C17 improvements, modernised circa 1960 and
again in 1986. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; tile front wall may be faced
with coursed blocks of granite ashlar; granite ashlar stack and replacement brick
chimneyshaft; asbestos slate roof, formerly thatch.
Plan and development: 2-room-and-through-passage plan house facing onto the road to
the north-east and built down the hillslope. Uphill the right room was the former
service end room, apparently unheated. It is now used as a garage and has been
extended forwards a little in the C20. The left room is the hall with a large
lateral stack projecting from the front. C20 service outshot to rear of passage and
service end. From the beginning the passage and service end were floored over.
There were as now 2 chambers there. The hall was originally open to the roof and
heated by an open hearth fire. Very shortly afterwards (the roof is only lightly
sooted) the hall fireplace was inserted and not too long after that (the early or
mid C17) the hall was floored. There was apparently no inner room. The house seems
to occupy the full width of its historic burgage property and is flanked by other
historic buildings, the Oxenham Inn (q.v) to right and Nos 1 and 2 Mill House (q.v)
to left. 8 Locked doorway through the right party wall is thought to be secondary.
House is 2 storeys.
Exterior: irregular 3-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars interrupted
by the hall stack. The C20 flat-roofed porch and garage concealed the centre and
right at ground floor level. Wall is plastered but a coved eaves cornice leads one
to suspect that the front is granite ashlar. The roof runs along the building
between the adjoining houses.
Interior: preserves the original structure. However all detail is hidden behind
C20 plasterboard in the service end room/garage. The lower passage partition is a
granite ashlar wall (one stone is inscribed "John Smith") and contains a blocked
doorway. C19 stairs in passage. Passage hall partition was an oak plank-and-muntin
screen; the headbeam remains and some of the panelling towards the rear may do.
Hall fireplace is granite ashlar with a hollow-chamfered surround and has never had
an oven. The C17 crossbeam is soffit-chamfered with step stops. Original 5-bay
roof structure is very complete and includes 2 integral closed trusses with oak-
framed crosswalls. The service chamber and hall both 2 bays with an open true cruck
truss with cambered collar. (Trusses all have carpenters assembly marks). Hall
roof very lightly smoke-blackened from the short-lived open hearth fire).
South Zeal is special being one of the few medieval boroughs where a good number of
its C16 and C17 houses still survive. Moorside is an important house in its own
right; a hall house built almost as chimneystacks were being built into houses. The
open hearth here was apparently short-lived. Moreover the front lateral stack is an
unusual feature in this part of Devon. The house appears more urban in character
than most of its contemporary neighbours.

Listing NGR: SX6512893537

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537446

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

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  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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