Source/Archive record SEM340792 - Higher Cowley Farm, Kentisbury, Devon: Desk-top study & assessment of the remains of Middle Cowley Farmhouse

An archaeological assessment was made of a domestic building and barn that now forms part of the complex of outbuildings at Higher Cowley Farm. The building had suffered severe storm damage in 2001, including the loss of its roof. The work included a desktop study of the building and of the wider farmstead, and a measured survey of the building. The study suggests that the farmstead is of at least late medieval origin and was once of two or possibly three farms forming a medieval hamlet. The names of the site recorded as Cowley, Upper Cowley and Higher Cowley suggests two farmhouses may have existed in proximity, one of which could be a former Middle Cowley. The curtilage was of dual occupancy throughout most of the 19th Century and until the early 20th Century. A second domestic building shown on the Kentisbury Tithe Map (other than the main house) is suggested to be Middle Cowley farmhouse, with a barn (likely of a different date) attached to the north end. The house appears to have undergone a change in floor plan at some time between 1930 and 1950. Its original date is unknown due to a lack of dateable architectural details.