Fancy
Farm is a Grade II listed building made of churt (the local flint) on the
plan of a traditional cross passage house. The recorded history of the house
is sketchy but we gather that the moulding on the fireplaces and the stone
mullioned windows became fashionable in the early 1640's, dating the main
part of the house from then.
The oldest part of
the house has fine Beer stone mullioned windows and inglenook fireplaces.
It is rumoured that some of the stone in the house was robbed from the great
Cistercian Dunkeswell Abbey at its dissolution. On the dining room inglenook
ancient tallow candle burns
remain along with some 18th century graffiti!
Traditional
materials; lime plaster, flat oil paints, natural floor coverings and English
hardwoods have been used to return the interior to the dusky distempered look
of former centuries. Modern day luxuries; spacious bathrooms, good showers,
roof lights and contemporary fittings have been sensitively incorporated into
the design to provide every comfort. The house is furnished with antiques and
paintings and completed with fresh flowers from the garden.
Additions
to the north and east were made in the 18th century. It ceased to be a farm
in the 1950's and gradually the land was sold off, leaving us with what we see
today, house, barn and outbuildings set in acre of garden.
