Summary
House, originating as a hall house of c1475; alterations and extensions in the late C16 and early C17; converted to two cottages early C19 but since re-unified.
Reasons for Designation
1, Coppard's Bridge is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: a late C15 timber framed open hall house of good scantling, ceiled over in the late C16 to early C17, chimneystacks inserted and extended to provide a high status house with three open fireplaces on the ground floor and two heated chambers above;
* Interior features: late C15 dais beam with rare survival of a plank screen, three arched door heads and two solid tread staircases. Late C16 and early C17 moulded ceiling, blocked ovolo-moulded window and open fireplaces, some with timber kerbs;
* Plan form: the successive plan forms over more than five hundred years are still readable internally and externally, altogether contributing to a rich understanding of the building's history and significance.
History
A late C15 open hall house. Dendrochronological dating has provided a likely felling date of 1461-1493. The open hall was partially floored circa 1575, the remaining bay floored and further extended by a bay and outshut to the north and an aisle to the east between 1596 and 1628. It was re-fronted and re-roofed circa 1740 (the property was owned by the Ades estate from the late 1700s) and subdivided into two cottages probably in the early C19. It is shown divided into two on the 1880 and subsequent editions of the 25 inch Ordnance Survey map. It remained in separate ownerships until 2008 and was then restored in the late C20-early 21. The late C20 rear extension is not of special interest.
Details
MATERIALS: timber-framing of good scantling, re-fronted in red brick on the ground floor and tile-hung above. Hipped tiled roof with three brick chimneystacks.
PLAN: originally of four bays, comprising a central two bay open hall jettied on the south-west end, with a parlour to the south-west and chamber above, and a pair of service rooms to the north-east and a chamber above. The open hall was ceiled over c1600, a chimney inserted into it and the service bay was adapted to serve as a kitchen with a rear-aisle and a new fifth bay. An end lean-to outshut, probably a wash-house or a brewhouse, with a further chimneystack, was also added at this time. Some adaptations were made in the early C19 when the house was divided into two cottages.
EXTERIOR: the north-west or entrance front has a red brick ground floor, is tile-hung above and has five irregularly-spaced multi-pane metal casement windows. There are two central cambered headed doorcases with plank doors. The roof to the north-west end slopes to ground floor level, over red brick with a triangular brick buttress. The south-east side has exposed timber-framing with plaster infill. There is one gabled dormer, a triple window to the outshut and a central C20 extension (which is not of special interest.) The south-west end is of red brick with a tile-hung first floor.
INTERIOR: the southwestern ground floor room (the original parlour) has large square ceiling joists and two C18 plank doors. The adjoining room to the north (originally the open hall) has a late C15 moulded and crenellated dais beam and an almost complete plank screen, wide four-centred arched doorway and evidence for a dais bench and spere truss. The inserted ceiling has a roll-moulded spine beam, chamfered floor joists with lamb's tongue stops and an open fireplace with bread oven. There are two plank doors and a tiled floor. To the north (the original service end and circa 1600 extension) is the cross passage with two arched heads to the original service rooms and two further rooms with open fireplaces. The first floor has an exposed timber frame of good scantling, including partition walls and ceiling beams, and old floor boards. Two bedrooms have circa 1600 fireplace bressumers and retain brick hearths edged with a timber kerb. One of the two arch braces of the hall truss remains in situ. There is a good quality blocked wooden ovolo-moulded mullioned casement in the north-west wall of the kitchen chamber and sockets for mullioned windows survive on the ground floor. Further plank doors survive. The stairs to the two attics, over the hall chamber and the service chamber, consist of straight flights of solid triangular-section treads on sloping carriages, perhaps reused from the medieval stairs. The roof structure was rebuilt circa 1740 as a shallower butt purlin roof, but some medieval rafters survive within the southern hip and tie beam mortices are evidence for crownposts.
