Hour Cottage

Details

HIGH BICKINGTON LOWER VILLAGE, High Bickington SS 59 20 14/105 Hour Cottage - II

Farmhouse, later divided, now house. Probably late C16 or early C17, possibly enlarged in the late C17 or later, and altered and partly rebuilt in the late C19 or early C20. Rendered over stone rubble and cob, the right-hand end wall rebuilt in uncoursed stone rubble with some red brick dressings. Gable-ended Welsh-slate roof (thatched until c. 1930). Rendered stone lateral stack with rendered brick shaft to front and brick end stack to left. Plan and development: Three-room plan sited at right angles to the road, facing south (ground falls to left). The central hall has a large external lateral stack to the front with an integral full-height square bay to the left and possibly formerly with a staircase in the projection to the right, unheated small inner room to the right (present kitchen) and probable former service room to the left with integral end stack and opposed doorways (now blocked) to right. The former inner room was probably converted to the kitchen in the late C19 or early C20 when the gable end was rebuilt and the present front door inserted, with the staircase rising from the entrance lobby. House reroofed c. 1930. Late C20 alterations included the partial removal of the dividing wall between the hall and kitchen, the kitchen extension to the rear and the glazed porch. Two storeys. Exterior: Asymmetrically-fenestrated front; pair of first-floor C19 two-light wooden casements flanking the stack, ground-floor C19 three-light wooden casement in bay to left of stack and pair of ground-floor 2-light wooden casements to left, the right- hand one in place of a former doorway (see new plaster below). C19 half-glazed door to the right of the stack with a C20 lean-to glazed porch. The right-hand gable end has first-floor and ground-floor 2-light wooden casements with brick segmental-arched heads, the first-floor window C19 and the ground floor window widened in the C20. Pair of C20 French casements in the rear wall of the hall (replacing a window). Interior: Masonry wall between hall and left-hand (former service) room. Hall has c.1600 cambered chamfered cross beam and half-beam to left with stepped straight cut stops. Circa 1600 fireplace with stone jambs and cambered chamfered wooden lintel with straight cut stops. U-plan bench in bay to right of fireplace. Evidence of blocked former stair to left of fireplace. Wall between hall and former inner room (present kitchen) partly removed during the C20 alterations, revealing the head beam of a former wooden screen (see mortices). Left-hand ground-floor room (former service room) has a C17 fireplace with splayed stone jambs, chamfered wooden lintel with curved runout stops and cloam oven to right with door. Plastered ceiling. South-west (front) window has jambs continuing down to floor level. Roof mostly rebuilt c.1930. One late C16/early C17 truss survives (without smoke blackening) with straight principals and cranked pegged notched halved lap-jointed collar. Roof formerly with threaded purlins. This was formerly Lower Farmhouse, now superseded by a C20 house (not included on this list).

Listing NGR: SS5995920372

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

91720

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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