thumb|right|A typical Dartmoor Longhouse c1500-1600 with [[:Barn|shippon to the right of the cattle porch]]

The Dartmoor longhouse is a type of traditional stone-built home, typically found on the high ground of Dartmoor, in Devon, England and belonging to a wider tradition of combining human residences with those of livestock (cattle or sheep) under a single roof specific to western Britain; Wales, Cornwall and Devon, where they are more usually referred to simply as longhouses Many longhouses are still inhabited today (although adapted over the centuries), while others have been converted into farm buildings. Forms of longhouses identical to those on Dartmoor are found in Cornwall, and in Wales where they are commonly called tyddyn meaning 'homestead', or specifically Ty Hir meaning 'long-house' in the Welsh language. A near identical type called the (Maison) Longère can also be found in northwestern (Brittany, Normandy) and central France.

thumb|right|Higher Uppacott (c.1350) has been preserved as a definitive example with preserved thatched roofing

Higher Uppacott, one of very few remaining longhouses to retain its original unaltered shippon (cattle-shed) and medieval thatch, is a Grade I listed building, and is now owned by the Dartmoor National Park Authority.

thumb|right|Floorplan of a 17th-century Dartmoor longhouse, shippon to right. Another fine example of a 16th-century longhouse, extended and enlarged can be found at Cullacott near Launceston in Cornwall.

The longhouse consists of a long, single-storey gable-ended granite structure built lengthwise down the slope of a hill, with a central 'cross-passage' dividing it into two rooms, sometimes partitioned with a screen. The higher end of the building was occupied by the human inhabitants; their animals were tethered in the lower, especially during the cold winter months. The animal quarters, called the 'shippon' or 'shippen'; a word still used by many locals to describe a farm building used for livestock, were located down the slope to allow slurry to drain out through the end wall. In Wales, the upper end was known as pen uchaf, the lower end pen isaf and the passage penllawr meaning 'head of the floor'.

This simple floorplan is clearly visible at the abandoned mediaeval village at Hound Tor, which was inhabited from the mid-13th to the mid-15th centuries corresponding with the establishment of the Ancient Tenements on the high moorlands and abandoned as a result of depopulation following the Black Death after 1340. Excavations during the 1960s revealed four longhouses, many featuring a central drainage channel, and several smaller houses and barns. Peter Herring notes in his discussion of a medieval hamlet of six longhouses at Brown Willy in Cornwall dating from the mid-thirteenth century, that the shippons were typically orientated toward a common livestock holding area or 'townplace', whilst the raised human portion was carefully positioned away from the communal area for privacy.

File:Sanders - Lettaford - geograph.org.uk - 974343.jpg|Lettaford - the entrance would once have been used by both cattle and human occupants

File:Pizwell - geograph.org.uk - 126716.jpg|Pizwell hamlet of 4 well preserved longhouses

File:Barns at Michelcombe - geograph.org.uk - 1178085.jpg|Michelcombe C16 barns

File:Westcott Farm - geograph.org.uk - 717162.jpg|Westcott Farm, Uppacott, Widdecombe-in-the-moor

File:Tyddyn Tyfod - geograph.org.uk - 342302.jpg|Tyddyn Tyfod a ruined Welsh Tyddyn

File:Tyddyn Mihangel - geograph.org.uk - 797950.jpg|Tyddyn Mihangel

File:Longere.jpg|Breton Longere

File:Maitrier longère avec puits couvert.jpg|Breton Longere (Belle Île/Ar Geuvrer) with covered well

File:102B.Botmeur.Creisquer.Longère traditionnelle.JPG|Breton Longere

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Notes and references

  • The Dartmoor Longhouse Dartmoor National Park