MEM23064 - Withycombe Farm, Challacombe (Building)

The farmstead is shown on the Challacombe Tithe Map. This included the barn at c. SS 6853 4211 and the long building at SS 6854 4210. [1] The farmstead is somewhat altered by the time the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map was drawn but this layout does not then appear to have been altered before the 2nd Edition map is published. On both of these maps, the farmstead is labelled Withecombe. They show that a horse engine house has been built on the northern side of the barn to the north and a large building has been added at SS 6855 4211 and occupies the northeastern and eastern side of the yard. These buildings and their associated enclosures now remain much in the same form on modern mapping, although a few buildings had been added, particularly to the south of the yard. [2-4] The farmstead was visited in December 1996. The house was described as rendered and thought to possibly date to the late 17th Century with its front raised up etc in the 19th Century. The farmyard has a raised cobbled surface and water supply and the barn with roundhouse was also noted. The shippons etc opposite the barn were thought to be early 19th Century. Cart sheds were also noted as part of the group. All the buildings had rubble walls and slate roofs and the house had a narrow garden onto the yard. It was also commented that ancient field banks and hedges extend the group into the landscape. [5] The farmstead was listed for sale in 2015. The estate agent particulars state that the farm included 250 acres of organic pasture and arable land. It included a five bedroom farmhouse flanked by two traditional barns and complemented by various livestock buildings. The kitchen houses an inglenook fireplace and one barn includes an adjoining roundhouse. [6] The site is not documented until 1678 but may date from the Domesday period. The farm was part of the Castle Hill/Fortescue Challacombe and Exmoor Estate until 1959. The farmstead was remodelled between 1840 and 1888, when the cartshed, horse engine house, milking parlour and farmhouse were built to form three ranges around a central yard area. The farmhouse itself appears to contain features reclaimed from an earlier building elsewhere, perhaps at Withycombe or Radworthy. [7]