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Exmoor
THE GREAT REFURBISHMENT? SOMERSET BUILDINGS IN
SOUTHERN EXMOOR C. 1550—1650
The period is often described as the great rebuilding of England. Although remote, Exmoor
was not entirely immune from outside influence. There was certainly wealth, as is shown by
inventories, but it may be that on Exmoor the great rebuilding was as much about alteration as
rebuilding. This is very evident in the surviving medieval houses. Desire for privacy and
comfort led to the insertion of ceilings in halls and the addition of stair turrets to provide
upstairs bedchambers. In the case of longhouses the shippen was often converted into a
parlour for private family use with the hall becoming a general reception and dining room.
The addition of rooms led to the provision of additional fireplaces and chimneys. The lateral
stack so common in the area may have arisen partly as an easy method of adding a chimney to
an existing building and without reducing the size of the room.
The proliferation of building work undoubtedly offered employment for craftsmen,
woodmen, and quarrymen but there is some evidence of a shortage of good skills and
materials in remoter parts of the moor such as Exford. It is probable that the work was carried
out by small farmers who supplemented their income by doing building work when there
labour was not needed on the land. Poor joinery and shortage of good timber may account for
the replacement of doors and windows. The large number of small quarries in the area
produced the stone of which most older houses in the area were built but unusually Winsford
and the western hamlets of Brushford have several cob buildings.
Only a fraction of the area’s buildings survive from this period and some may be
unidentified because of late alterations. They are nearly all farmhouses. Only one house
earlier than 18th century has so far been recorded from Hawkridge and Withypool, and only
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one from Exmoor. What survives is a fraction of what was built at the period. Of the houses
of the poor we know little.
In spite of improvements to their homes, surviving inventories reveal little of the use
or furnishing of rooms. Even wealthy farmers appear to have had little furniture. It may be
that it was not considered of any value compared with stock, crops or loans. Of those few
17th-century inventories, all from Dulverton, which list rooms, none refers to a parlour. The
third room is described as a buttery and some houses also have a milk house or dairy although
that is usually single-storey. Artisans would normally use one room as a shop.
The finest 16th-century work is to be seen at Combe House in Dulverton where the
Sydenham family greatly altered and enlarged their home. The hall was ceiled, the buttery
was converted into a parlour, and a staircase, west wing, and front porch were added to the
house. The house was given decorative plastering and panelling, although much of the
surviving work was introduced during lavish restoration in the 1920s. The medieval house at
West Nethercote farm in Winsford was ceiled and enlarged in two stages in the later 16th
century and a projecting staircase added. The desire appears to have been to achieve the then
standard lowland 3-room plan, 2-storey house. That plan was common throughout Somerset
and other counties and provided the desired layout of hall with adjoining but separate parlour
and kitchen and private chambers above. Nearby Lyncombe farmhouse was similarly altered
and provided with lateral stacks and a bread oven. The house at beer in Brushford was ceiled
in the 16th century and further alterations were made in the 17th century. The quality of the
work suggests prosperity.
New houses appear to have been built in the 16th century at Higher Langridge, Middle
Upcott and Higher Upcott in Brushford and at Allshire in the same parish c. 1600. New
houses in Winsford parish include Great Staddon farmhouse and the smaller Royal Oak
Farmhouse. Winsford village contains several fine houses from this period, many with cob
and has more of a superficial resemblance to a village from the coast or vales than others in
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the area. Karslake house is a 16th-century farmhouse, which has been converted into a hotel
and had an added agricultural wing and a malthouse. Also from this period are the Royal Oak,
a farmhouse converted to an inn, the Old Vicarage, and Sunnymead near the green.
Withycombe cottage appears to be a 17th-century remodelling of a small longhouse to fit the
standard 3-room plan and is possibly a survival of a smallholder’s house. Like other houses in
Winsford it contains some good woodwork in contrast to other Exmoor parishes.
Dulverton has many former farmhouses of this period. Several lie within the built-up area of
the town, which contains few recorded buildings of this period. Sydenham House may be an
early 16th century farmhouse and it has been suggested that the original kitchen was separated
from the rest of the house by a cart entrance to the yard. Much work was carried out in the
later 16th century and again in the late 17th century. Two good farmhouses was built on the
road west from Dulverton to Hele Bridge in the 16th century. Now known as Woodlands and
Wood Tenement, the latter is a particularly fine house, which was extended in the 17th century
and had good quality fittings. On the High Street a probable 16th or 17th-century farmhouse
has been divided into two dwellings. Other buildings may have had similar origins.
The 17th century saw another phase of improvements and rebuilding. It may be that some 16thcentury houses had been built in conservative or old-fashioned forms. Houses like Higher
Sowerhill in Brushford were still built with an open hall even if the rest of the house was twostoreyed. The hall was ceiled c. 1600 to create the standard 3-room, 2-storey form. The house
at Higher Langridge in Brushford was given new plasterwork in 1648 but this was clearly not
enough and the house was replaced later by a new farmhouse nearby. Luckesses in Exford
was built in the 16th century apparently as a longhouse but in the early 17th century, there is a
datestone of 1639, it was rebuilt as a conventional two storey house. Also in Exford, the
houses at Yealscombe and Higher Thorn were rebuilt in the 17th century but whether from the
difficulty in obtaining good timber or skilled carpenters the woodwork is poor. Ashway in the
north-west of Dulverton parish was a small farmhouse built in the 17th century with a two-
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room, cross-passage plan. Another small house of the period may be Forge Cottage in Bridge
Street, later converted into a shop. At the opposite end of Dulverton parish the late 17thcentury Hele Bridge Farm marks a transition to a very different style of house and indicates
the increasing prosperity of large farmers. It is a 3-storey, double-pile house. This house type
allows for two reception rooms and a further private parlour and also attic bedrooms for
servants. It is a vernacular interpretation of high-class housing of the period.
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