MDE21829 - Shoulsbury or Shoulsbarrow Farm (Building)

The Challacombe Tithe Map shows a group of buildings at this location, including a building to the north at c. SS 6921 4011. [1] This group of buildings had been much developed by the time the 1880s 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map had been drawn and it is not clear to what extent the buildings shown on this map incorporated fabric from earlier structures. The settlement had, however, been extended to the south, although its main focus was at the northern end, with what appears to have been a farmhouse sited at c. SS 6921 4007. The settlement is labelled Shoulsbury on this map. [2] The buildings appear to have been little altered by the time the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map was published; however, the settlement is now labelled Shoulsbarrow. [3] The modern MasterMap data shows that some of the buildings shown on the 2nd Edition map appear to be extant, although altered or partially demolished. The buildings now situated at SS 6922 4011 and SS 6924 4012 were joined together, forming a much longer range, and the probable farmhouse at SS 6921 4007 appears to have been modified but is still apparently extant. [4] The site was visited in December 1996. It was thought that the current farmhouse was presumably a 19th Century replacement of a more ancient farmhouse (whose roof had part fallen in at the time of survey) and associated buildings. Any older enclosure boundaries were thought to have been lost. [5] The comments relating to the ancient farmhouse made by [5] likely relate to the building at SS 6924 4012, which has been photographed with its roof partially fallen in. This appears to be either depicted as an enclosure or a building on the Tithe Map [1], assuming the Tithe Map's georectification has been undertaken correctly in this location. [6] A previous owner was a millionaire named Holland, who set out to buy up Exmoor farms and build a mansion at Shoulsbarrow. To develop the site, the area was levelled apart from the original white farmhouse and part of the farm buildings, recorded as a tied cottage in 1994. Mr Holland's enterprise had collapsed and the site was apparently in different hands. A site visit in 1975 records an enclosed garden having been built by Mr Holland with a pattern of walls and features all in imported stone. The farm had previously been occupied by the Dallyn family for over 250 years. The barn machinery was powered by a waterwheel (see MDE21573). [7] The site was always locally known and spelt as Shoulsbury. The Dallyn family farmed there continuously for over 250 years until the 1960s; they had about 360 acres, including high moorland, wet moor, sunken lanes, deep combes and beech hedges, with Exmoor Horn sheep and Ruby Red Devons. The existing farmhouse is Victorian and replaced a house a little to the south in "Amos's Meadow". There was a thatched cottage with shippons, stables, barn and other buildings forming a semi circle from the north to the east and south, around a cobbled yard. The barn machinery was powered by water leading down Rocky Lane via a millpond, from the Hammerland Valley, and the waterwheel worked until the 1950s. The farmstead and associated land was subject to much alteration after the 1950s and before 1990 by the new owner of Shoulsbarrow Farm, Mr David Holland, a London businessman.[8]