The Dairy

Summary

A dainty detached dairy of 1929, this charming building nestles in the hillside, reflecting early 20th century advances in hygiene and dairy practices. Its elevated position on a north-facing slope, set apart from the main farm, would have helped keep the milk cool and protected from contamination.

The design is neat and compact, with low rendered walls supporting a generously proportioned roof. Its unusual double porch, with symmetrical openings, lends the impression of an ornamental town hall clock, evoking the whimsical sense that small figures might parade out of the doors on the hour. Inside, the original layout survives, with separate rooms for storing milk and for making butter and cheese, fully tiled for hygiene and fitted with benches and a stepped platform. Remarkably unaltered, the dairy stands as a testament to the care that architect Herbert Read put into even the humblest of estate buildings at Gullet Farm.

Reasons for Designation

The Dairy at Gullet Farm, South Pool, Devon, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* as a neat and attractive Arts and Crafts style design for a dairy, constructed of good quality materials with refined details;
* as the work of noted architect Herbert Read and one of his best designs on the Gullet Farm Estate;
* the interior layout and surfaces have been retained, demonstrating its principal functions for cooling milk for the processes of milk and cheese making.

Historic interest:

* as a clear example of the early adoption of improved dairy farming processes to ensure better, healthier products, in this case by locating the dairy uphill and away from the germs around the milking parlour, and on a north-facing slope that naturally kept the interior cooler for milk storage;
* as a modest but important part of this revitalised country estate, where the farm was sited away from the domestic setting of the house. The dairy location dictated the subsequent siting of the farm itself, on the land below it to the east of the formal gardens to the main house;
* as part of the country estate of Ian MacDonald, son of the architect Robert Falconer MacDonald, and grandson of George MacDonald, the notable C19 poet and author.

Group value:

* the significance of the building is enhanced by its association with other Grade II-listed structures on the estate, sharing a complementary style by Read and reflecting the vision of the MacDonald family, who commissioned a coherent and high-quality group of estate buildings.

History

The site of Gullet Farmhouse is shown on the 1840 tithe map for South Pool Parish as a small cluster of buildings by the foreshore on Southpool Creek with additional buildings scattered across the landscape. In 1925, Ian and Helen MacDonald, bought the 155-acre peninsula including the farm, farmhouse and associated buildings. MacDonald commissioned his late father’s practice, Read and MacDonald of London, to renovate the farmhouse. However, following a fire in 1928, the house had to be rebuilt to new plans by Read and MacDonald. New buildings were then introduced as part of the creation of a modern dairy farm estate, designed to relocate the farming activity away from the domestic environment of the farmhouse. By the outbreak of the Second World War, during which both of Ian and Helen MacDonald served, the improved farm estate was well established.

The model farm was built on land to the east of the Home Barn and its gardens, beginning in 1929 with the construction of the dairy on higher ground behind the farmyard (as shown, but with some variations, on plans of August and September 1929 by Herbert Read). The dairy farm itself dates to 1933/4, and a new milking parlour and additional shed were built in the 1950s. The dairy has had little alteration, except for the removal of some wall tiles to one room and the removal of the boiler.

Details

A dairy of 1929 designed by Herbert Read of Read and MacDonald for Ian and Helen MacDonald

MATERIALS: of brick construction and finished in roughcast render, and roofed in slate. The doors and casements are of timber and windows have clay tile cills.

DESCRIPTION: in the Arts and Crafts style with a deep hipped, slate roof with oversailing eaves and roughcast-rendered walls. The front (north) elevation has a distinctive central gable that breaks forward with the lower level recessed on either side to create a pair of porches, each framed by a timber archway. At each end of the elevation is a casement and there is a dormer to the left roof slope. The west flank elevation has a gabled casement. There is a central ridge stack to the roof.

Inside, the building divides form an internal porch into two rooms: the Dairy to the left (east) and the Wash Up room to the right. Both rooms are finished with white tiled walls with a blue trim and red tiled floors (some areas showing loss or damage). In the dairy room, the benches are tiled in white. In the Wash Up room, the steps to a raised platform are finished with red tiled treads and risers, with white tiles to the string. An open gutter runs along the west wall of the Wash Up room. To the west, of the main building is a small detached shed, finished in roughcast render and fitted with a plank door and strap hinges.

Sources

Other
Gullet Farm Estate Papers of Ian MacDonald Esquire: Various drawings and sketches including by Read and McDonald (1929-34) and Michelmore Loveys and Sons (1965)

End of official list entry