Details
BOVEY TRACEY EAST STREET (north side)
SX. 8178
Bovey Tracey
11/58 Nos. 20 (Manor Cottage),
- 22 (Cottage Retreat) and 24
GV II*
Row of 3 houses, probably a single large house originally. Early C16, with later
additions at the rear. Solid, rendered walls. Slated roofs. The front ranges of
Nos. 22 and 24 have blue glazed ridge-tiles, but No.20 has clay ridge-tiles, some of
which appear to be old handmade ones with low crests. The rear wing of No.22 has
some similar ridge-tiles. On the ridge, between Nos. 22 and 24, is a C19 red brick
chimney stack. Nos. 20 and 22 have a 3-room medieval plan, the former open hall and
one of the 2-storeyed ends lying within No.20, while the other storeyed end lies
within No.22. The relationship of No.24, which is also pre-1700 and shares a roof
with the other 2 houses, is not at present clear, although it is likely to have been
part of the same house originally. The building may formerly have extended further
west, on to the site now occupied by No.18. 2 storeys. 4-window front. No.20, the
left-hand house, preserves a good C19 exterior, 2 windows wide. All the windows are
3-light wood casements of differing sizes with 3 panes per light. In the centre of
the ground storey is a 6-panelled door, the 4 lower panels flush with raised reeded
borders applied to their margins; the 2 top panels are ovolo-moulded and are now
glazed. The door has a brass lion-head knocker. Moulded wood architrave and small
flat moulded hood. Nos.22 and 24 are each 1 window wide with C20 windows and doors.
Each door has above it a C19 small flat moulded wooden hood on shaped brackets.
Interiors: none of the ground-floor partitions at No.20 is original. The front
range has been remodelled to provide a 2-room and through-passage plan different in
dimension from the medieval plan as reconstructed from the arrangement of the upper
floor beams. On the right-hand side of the passage is an unplastered C19 timber
framed partition with stone rubble nogging. On the left-hand side is a stone rubble
wall with an old beam on top, possibly the reset head beam of an original partition.
The left-hand room has chamfered joists laid lengthwise, their rounded ends just
visible in the passage. These clearly formed the end of a deep internal jetty
projecting in the open hall, for inside the room the chamfer is interrupted at the
point where it must have overlain a partition. The joists have pyramid stops at
either side of the interruption in the chamfer and against the left-hand gable-wall.
A curious feature is that the joist nearest the front wall is not chamfered on the
side facing the wall, but has a series of thick, short plain joists projecting from
it at right angles. These short joists are properly pegged to the main joist, and
it may be that they originally projected into the street as an external jetty; the
former presence of such a jetty at No.21 East Street opposite is discussed under the
listing for that house (item 11/62). Another feature of the joisting in the left-
hand room of No.20 is a former opening at the rear, next to the gable-wall; this has
a pegged trimmer, and may have been designed for a staircase. The right-hand room
has similar rounded joist-ends projecting from the right-hand party wall with No.22;
the wall is said to be thin and could well contain an early partition under the
plaster. The joist-ends are chamfered with pyramid stops against the party wall,
indicating that at this end of the hall there was a very shallow internal jetty.
The main beam of the room, which runs cross-wise and is a later insertion, probably
of C17, is ovolo-moulded with raised run-out stops. At either side of it are
scratch-moulded joists extending to the jetty at either end of the former hall;
those on the left are exposed in the passage. Both rooms have fireplaces in the
rear wall. That in the right-hand room is C20, but in the left-hand room is a large
fireplace with jambs made of plain, heavy blocks of granite; it has a chamfered wood
lintel with mutilated stops designed for a slightly wider opening. Lean-to at rear
contains a large C19 oven in left wall.
Medieval roof survives over whole of front range of No.20 and appears to continue at
least over No.22. 2 closed trusses with cambered collars and king-struts correspond
to the ends of the jetties, the framework being exposed in the second storey.
Between the closed trusses is a smoke-blackened 2-bay hall roof with an arch-braced
truss in the centre having a straight collar-beam. The trusses have threaded
purlins but no ridge-piece. The unblackened roof over the left-hand side of the
house has one truss in the centre, its collar missing, and there is a second truss
against the gable-wall. This could be a gable-truss, characteristic of high-class
roofing, but it could also suggest that the house originally extended further west.
It can just be seen that this truss is a jointed cruck; the feet of the other
trusses are not visible.
Interiors of Nos.22 and 24 not inspected, although the front ground-storey rooms
were seen through the windows. That of No.22 has a large fireplace in the right-
hand wall, with granite jambs and heavy wooden lintel; exposed upper floor beam.
No.24 has a heavy chamfered upper floor beam.
Listing NGR: SX8184978586
