Greenhill House Moretonhampstead, Devon, England, UK

Listed Building Description

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

MORETONHAMPSTEAD FORE STREET (north side), SX 7586 Moretonhampstead 8/154 - 23.8.55 Greenhill House GV II

House. Probably early C17 or earlier, extended and rearranged in early C18 (1720 according to R O Heath) and refashioned and extended again in circa Mid C19. Plastered granite rubble. Thatched roof with gabled ends. Rendered gable end chimneystacks, right-hand stack to front range has offsets. Plan: what is now the rear wing was probably the higher end of a C17 or earlier 3- room plan house, and its gable end stack would have originally heated the inner room and chamber above. In circa early C18 the house was reorientated and a wing, which is now the main front range, was built at right angles to the lower end where the lateral stack because the gable end stack of the early C18 range. This early C18 front range in 2 storeys and attic with a symmetrical 2-room plan with a central through-passage leading to a staircase behind the left-hand room making the left room smaller than the room to the right. In circa mid C19 the house was refashined and a flat roof single stsorey kitchen and scullery addition was built at the rear in the angle of the early C18 front and the earlier wing. 2 storeys and attic. Symmetrical 2 window range. Rusticated stucco quoins and stringcourse at first floor level. C19 tripartite sashes with horizontal glazing bars only. Ground floor windows in moulded stucco architraves, the cills on small brackets. Moulded architraves removed from first floor windows. Central doorway with stuccoed pilasters with round-headed panels and later wooden moulded cornice, moulded panel reveals and rectangular fanlight with margin glazing bars. C19 moulded 4-panel door. 2-light attic casements with small panes in gable ends. Rear wing has C19 2-light casements with glazing bars, first floor windows break eaves to form eyebrows, the right-hand casement with arched top light. Large flat roof single storey addition in the angle at rear. Interior: most of the mid C19 internal joinery etc survives, including panelled doors, moulded doorcases and first flight of staircase with stick balusters and column newel, and simple marble or slabe chimneypiece in left-hand room. Chimneypiece in right-hand room replaced but flanked by elliptically headed alcoves. The staircase from the first floor to the attic is C18 and has moulded string, moulded stick balusters and heavy hand rail. Many C18 2-panel doors and 1 cupboard survive on first floor and attic. Also on first floor single C19 chimneypieces with their original iron grates. In rear wing a section of C17 panelling reused as partition. Mid C19 rear addition has large kitchen fireplace with bracketed shelf which is flanked by large early C18 corner cupboards with Doric entablatures, giant fluted pilasters and round-arched panelled doors. These cupboards were moved from front of house. Roofs: over early C18 range the roof space is ceiled but it seems to have retained its original structure. Over the earlier rear wing the roof is also ceiled and there is no access to roof space, but over what might have been the hall there is a high plastered ceiling revealing the shape of the trusses with collars and 1 heavy purlin. Immediately behind Greenhill House the first Baptist meetinghouse in Moretonhampstead was built in 1715 by Samuel Lightfoot the Elder, but was destroyed by fire. Greenhill House has been virtually unaltered since C19 and retains its plan which shows the development quite clearly from its early origins. It is very complete internally and externally and occupies an important situation close to the church.

Listing NGR: SX7546286097