Listed Building: WALNERS FARMHOUSE (1169218)

PARRACOMBE SS 64 NW 2/117 Walners Farmhouse - GV II Farmhouse. Probably early C16 remodelled and extended at upper end in late C17/early C18 and lower end altered in late C18/early C19 with C20 alterations. Rendered stone rubble and cob. C20 clay tiled roof, hipped at left end but thatch roof entirely intact underneath. 2 axial stacks, one to hall backing onto through- passage with tapered cap and drip, one inserted in lower end rendered. Tall rear lateral stack to rear upper end and at right gable end, both stone rubble with tapered caps. Plan: complex plan, obscured by later alterations. The overall length of the house is unusual for the area. It consists of two rooms at the lower end to left of former through-passage, the rear doorway of which was infilled in C20. To the right is the hall inserted by stack backing onto passage. A front passage leads from the hall to the range at the right end, with a room to the rear of the passage which has external rear access only. The staircase is sited between this room and the right- hand range which consist of a large room heated by the rear lateral stack with a narrow room beyond which may have been heated by the stack at the right gable end, but evidence only survives of a first floor fireplace. Development: the C16 range appears to have consisted of an open-hall, through- passage and the lower end which, to judge by the length may well have been a byre or shippon. The hall has no early features surviving, only roughly chamfered cross joists and timber fireplace lintel to the inserted stack with a thin chamfer and small scooped out stops. This would suggest a late date, possibly even early C18, for the insertion of the floor and stack. The smoke-blackening extends evenly from the hall stack to the upper end of the small room and front passage to the right of the hall, where the base of a solid stone wall indicates the former gable end of this range. The small room also has no surviving features except for a chamfered axial beam, both ends of which have been sawn off, its lower end projecting as a stub into the hall. The partitions between it and the hall and the front passage are of rough timber uprights with planks nailed to them, suggesting that this room has been enclosed out of the original larger hall. This would have been of a considerable length, and it is possible that originally a low-screen partition may have been created a small inner room at the lower upper of the hall of roughly the same dimensions as the surviving room. The external front wall at the right end of the front passage indicates that a section has been rebuilt of a width of a former stair projection which would have been demolished, when the stairs were resited running up the side of the original right gable-end wall. Probably at the same time as the ceiling over the hall, a large parlour was added at the upper end, heated by the lateral rear stack with a narrow room beyond it and probably created out of it, the gable end stack heating only the chamber over it. The parlour range has a slightly higher roof level. In the late C18 or C19, an axial stack was inserted in the lower end creating two rooms with an additional staircase in the left hand rear corner of the lower room. The roof structure over this end below the hall stack was also replaced at this time. In C20 a single storey flat roofed extension was added to rear of lower end which blocked the rear through-passage doorway, and 2 lean- to's, one to front of hall and one to rear of parlour range demolished. 2 storeys. 4 window range. Irregular C20 fenestration throughout. C20 stone rubble porch to through-passage doorway. Interior: rough chamfered cross ceiling joists to hall and axial joists to lower end room off through-passage. Chamfered beam to 'inner' room with ends sawn off. Cambered timber lintel to inserted stack in lower end and chamfered timber lintel to hall stack with scooped out stops. 2 cross ceiling beams in parlour with run-out stop chamfers. Parlour fireplace rebuilt in C20. Two 2-panelled doors survive to upper floor. Roof structure over hall intact with raised cruck truss, the principals bedded well into the wall almost to first floor level, with morticed and cranked collar, diagonally set ridge and two tiers of trenched purlins. Truss, purlins, rafters and underside of thatch thoroughly smoke-blackened. Truss over 'inner' room replaced. No access to roofspace over parlour range but single truss has straight principals and trenched purlins. No sign of smoke-blackening. 3 late C18/early C19 trusses over lower end with straight principals, purlins, resting on backs and waney rafters, all entirely clean. Despite alterations and C20 fenestration, this is an important survival in this northern part of North Devon where few late medieval open hall houses are to be found. Listing NGR: SS6406946616