MSO10644 - Gallon House, Exmoor (Building)

A farmhouse purchased by the Knight Family in 1841. It contained The Red Deer Inn, where Frederick Knight held his biannual Rent Audit for the Exmoor and Brendon Estates, but it closed by 1883. It also housed a youth hostel in the 1940s.

Shown on OS map as Red Deer Farm. Farmhouse. Mid C19. Roughcast over rubble, bitumen covered hipped slate roof, roughcast stacks rising from eaves. Double pile. Two storeys, 3 bays; 12-pane sash windows, central gabled porch, semi-circular headed opening, plank door; 2-storey, one bay lean-to roofed wings on either side, 6-pane sash window first floor left, right ground floor 2-light casement, entered on returns. This farmhouse was built by the Knight family. [1] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 265424. First Listed on 02/01/1986. [2] Double pile plan. Stone, Render, roughcast and pebbledash walls. Hipped roof [3] The 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map shows the property as Red Deer House. [4] The 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map labels the site as Red Deer Farm. [5] The modern MasterMap data shows the property as being named Gallon House. [6] The building was visited in June 2013 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [7] SS 810 393. Red Deer Farm, Simonsbath, Minehead, Somerset. Opened between August and September 1946 as a small primitive self catering only farm hostel by the Youth Hostel Association. It closed permanently on 31 October 1948, replaced by Crangs Heasleigh (MEM23241), which received equipment from Simonsbath. [8] At Red Deer, John Knight had purchased an 'Allotment, Dwelling House and Premesis' in February 1841. In the June 1841 census return, it was referred to as Gallon House (an inn), with Richard Bromham as publican. The Red Deer had given up its licence through lack of trade by 1883. [9] Frederick Knight held his half yearly Rent Audit for the Exmoor and Brendon Estates at the Red Deer Inn (now Gallon House) on the Exford Road. [10] The "Red Deer" is one of three inns opened on the outskirts of the free suitors' allotments in the southeastern portion of the moor. It is better known as Gallon House, having long ceased to be an inn. [11] In April 1852, Robert Smith (Knight's land agent) was in negotiations with J Mills for the tenancy of Gallon House and Farm, which was falling into disrepair. A letter dating from 26 April from Smith to Knight states that "the House, (Inn) Buildings, fences &c &c are daily getting worse & no [underlined] return being made from the farm -" [12]