MEM23087 - Exmoor Angus or Verwill Farm (Monument)

The farmstead is depicted on the Combe Martin Tithe Map and labelled Verwill. It is centred around two buildings on the north and south sides of the road, both coloured pink, with further farm buildings arranged to its east. The southern building (Lower Verwill Farmhouse, MDE21117) forms the western side of a yard, with the southern and eastern sides encompassed by an L shaped building; northeast of the northern pink building are a group of three buildings (at SS 6219 4651, SS 6218 4650 and SS 6219 4650), with a further building sited to their east at c. SS 6222 4652. A series of enclosures are grouped around the farmstead. [1] The 1st and 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps are very similarly depicted. These show that the farmstead has been split into two (assuming this was not the arrangement before), presumably down the central road, so that the house and southern farm buildings are named Lower Verwill and the house and northern farm buildings are named Higher Verwill. The northern pink building shown on the Tithe Map is now clearly the farmhouse, although its plan form is not precisely the same, suggesting it may have been altered or, alternatively, rebuilt. The farm buildings that support both farmsteads shown on the Tithe Map appear to mostly be extant, with some alterations and a new small structure (?linhay) is now shown to the southwest of Lower Verwill Farmhouse at c. SS 6215 4645. The area within the enclosures to the south of the farmhouse is shown as orchard. Two wells are also depicted in this area. [2,3] Since the 2nd Edition map was surveyed, the farmstead has apparently changed very little, though again some of the buildings have been the subject of small alterations. In addition, a new building has been constructed at c. SS 6216 4643. The farm now appears to be one unit and is labelled Exmoor Angus Farm on modern mapping. [4] The farmstead was visited in December 1996. It was described as "one of the most beautiful and complete groups of buildings. Untouched." The present farmhouse (the northern one) was stated to have a date of 1870, featuring hornless sashes and an older end and back chimney. The small yard next to Lower Verwill Farmhouse was noted to have a fine small barn, with various other buildings dotted around a complex of enclosures, including a fine 18th Century bank barn [which is the building shown on the Tithe Map at SS 6219 4651]. The farmstead is set in a very secluded and beautiful and very interesting complex of lanes, enclosures, buildings and streams. It was said to clearly be an upland settlement of two or more farms originally. [5] The date mentioned by [5] for the northern farmhouse of 1870 may relate to an existing building being altered or knocked down and rebuilt. [6]