Bishops House

Details

CHAGFORD LOWER STREET, (east side), SX 7087 Chagford 6/130 Nos 3 and 5 Bishops House - 20.2.52 GV II*

2 houses, once a single house. Early C16 with later C16 and C17 improvements, subdivided probably in the late C19 or early C20. Plastered granite; granite stack with plastered chimney shaft; thatch roof. Plan and development: originally a 3-room-and-through-passage plan house set back from the street facing north-west. No. 3 is a 2-room plan cottage occupying the former hall and inner room to right of the passage. The hall has a large axial stack backing onto the passage and there is a newel stair turret projecting to rear at the upper end of the hall. No. 5 is a 1-room plan cottage occupying the former service end room. 2-storey front porch, the upper room belonging to No. 5. It seems that the original house was open to the roof from end to end and probably heated by an open hearth fire. Through the later C16 and C17 the fireplace was inserted and the rooms were progressively floored over. Porch was added in late C16-early C17. Both cottages have C20 service outshots to rear. Main block is 2 storeys. Exterior: 1:1:2-window front of mostly C20 iron or timber-framed casements with glazing bars. The porch is gabled and the room over jetties forward on moulded granite corbels resting on rubble side walls, the right one particularly thick (it contains the hall fireplace oven housing). On the left side there is a C17 oriel window to the first floor porch room; it has canted sides but the lights are now blocked and it rests on shaped oak brackets. Alongside to left of the porch is a C19 plank door inserted to the service end room (No. 5). The front passage doorway contains a similar door but it occupies the original arch-headed oak frame (showing to rear only). The roof is gable-ended. Good interior: both sides of the passage are stone rubble walls and the lower side doorway has been blocked. The hall (No. 3) contains the only fireplace in the whole house; large, probably late C16, granite ashlar with hollow-chamfered surround and blocked side oven. At the upper end is an oak plank-and-muntin screen, probably an original low partition. The muntins are chamfered with straight cut stops high enough for an upper end bench and the screen contains a shoulder-headed door. Probably in the mid C16 the inner room was floored and the chamber was jettied into the hall and the rounded ends of the joists project over the screen. In the inner room a trimmer shows the position of the former ladder access to the chamber. The hall was floored in the early C17; its crossbeams are deeply chamfered with step stops. At the same time a newel stair was provided to rear of the hall. Its oak doorframe is ovolo-moulded, the steps are baulks of oak and there are 2 chamfered and step-stopped doorframes from a tight landing to the first floor chambers. Most of the doors in this part (No.3) are very old and some may be original. The service end room (No. 5) has a plain axial beam of indeterminate date and the winder stair here is C19. The roof overall is 4 bays. The lower end truss is a true cruck. The hall has a side-pegged jointed cruck with a cambered collar and another has been closed between the hall and inner room chambers. The roofspace is inaccessible but smoke- blackened timbers and thatch are suspected. This is a very well-preserved multi-phase house.

Listing NGR: SX7010087712

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

94659

Legacy System:

LBS

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