MSO6753 - Merrycoombe or Muddicombe Farm (Monument)

The farmstead is shown on historic mapping and variously labelled Merrycoombe or Muddicombe. Remains of a rectangular building and a small stone barn can both still be discerned and are both assumed to be post-medieval.

Merrycoombe is shown and labelled as a working farm on the Exford Tithe Map. It has since disappeared. The farmhouse is depicted to the northeast of the site at c. SS 8353 3912 and there are at least three associated buildings dotted around the site, at c. SS 8351 3913, SS 8352 3910 and SS 8355 3910. [1,2] Remains are one ruined building with a gable remaining. One smaller stone built building with a corrugated roof remains. A large corrugated implement shed lies at the south end of the site. Other earthworks are around making several small enclosures and leats of a water meadow system lie on the valley side to the northwest. [3] The site is labelled "Muddicombe" on the 1st and 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps. While the farmhouse was still extant, the largest of the associated outbuildings (at SS 8355 3910) appears to have been demolished by the time of their publication. [4,5] The deserted farmstead of Muddicombe is centred at SS 8353 3913, and now comprises the densely overgrown remains of a rectangular structure measuring 18.8 metres by 6 metres, with walls 0.9 metres thick of roughly coursed local stone. The best preserved part of the structure is the western gable which stands to 2.5 metres. No further details of the structure, or other outbuildings depicted in 1889, were evident due to the vegetation. To the west is a small stone barn (which is not depicted in 1889). Muddicombe is now used as the focus of a smallholding which is farmed from Exford. [6] A large building with a metal sheet roof now occupies the centre of the site. [7,8] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [9]