MDE21368 - Dewcombe Farmhouse, Countisbury (Building)

Farmhouse, now house. Probably early 19th Century with probably late 19th Century minor additions. Painted coursed stone rubble, with slate-hung gable end to west. Rendered stone stack with slate weathering and brick cap. Gable-ended graded slate roofs. Plan and development: cruciform plan with arms of equal length and central circular stack. Single rooms in each arm linked by angled passages at corners. Later outshuts in angles to north-west, north-east and south-east. The kitchen is in the west wing and the parlour in the north wing. The South wing was used as a dairy when the house was part of a farm. The staircase rises out of the east wing. 1 storey and attic. Exterior: entrance front to north. 1-light 19th Century wooden casements to ground floor and attic, that to ground floor with segmental brick-arched head. Left-hand outshut with small 19th Century wooden 1-light casement to left and 20th Century wooden casement to right with wooden lintel and late 20th Century 2-leaf boarded door to left with wooden lintel. Rear of right-hand wing with 3-light wooden attic casement and ground-floor 2-light wooden casement. Gable-end of rear wing with 2-light wooden attic casement and ground- floor 1-light wooden casement. Interior: plain, with largely 18th Century joinery. The cross is an unusual domestic plan form, especially for so modest a house. [1] The farmhouse is labelled 'Ducombe Wells' and shown on the Tithe Map as a lone cruciform building within its own field system. [2] 'Ducombe Wells' is shown on the 1st and 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps as a large building to the west of 'Wilsham Cross' with a curvilinear feature adjoining to the southwest and other buildings adjoining to the east. Several detached buildings are shown in the irregular shaped yard to the north and the farmstead is surrounded by small fields. [3,4] The farmstead was visited in January 1997. The house was described as an unrestored, small cruciform building, probably 17th Century in date and surviving from an ancient farmstead on which only small remnants of buildings have been retained. It was thought not to have been farmed from the 1930s. N.B. The reference to 'small remnants of buildings' may allude to the buildings depicted on the 1st and 2nd Edition maps, which are later 19th Century in date. [5,6] The building was visited in December 2013 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [7]