No 1 Old Post Office and No 2 Town Cottage

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 17 December 2021 to correct the name and to reformat the text to current standards.

ST 10 NE
6/79

LUPPITT
No 1 Old Post Office and No 2 Town Cottage

(Formerly listed as No 1 The Post Office and No 2 Town Cottage

GV
II
Two cottages, one including a former Post Office. All formerly a farmhouse early or mid C16 with major later C16 and C17 improvements, some probably C18 alterations when the farmhouse was divided into three cottages; circa 1960 two of the cottages were united (No 1) and circa 1980 No 2 was modernised.

Plan and development: two adjoining cottages facing west-south-west, say west, and built down the hillslope. Uphill at the left (north) end is No 1, The Old Post Office, which has a two-room plan with central through-passage. The left room has an axial stack backing onto the passage and the right room shares an axial stack with the adjoining cottage No 2. The stack is in the party wall and serves back-to-back fireplaces. No 2 at the right (south) end has a one-room plan.

Probably in the C18 a farmhouse here was converted to three one-room plan cottages and in the C20 two of these were united to make up No 1. These later alterations have done much to confuse the evidence of the early development of the building. Also the roofspace is inaccessible. Never-the-less part at least is known to be smoke-blackened proving that the farmhouse began as some form of open hall house heated by an open hearth. The fireplaces and beams were inserted progressively between the mid C16 and mid C17 but much of the evidence is hidden and some of that exposed is confusing. Both cottages are two storeys with secondary outshots to rear and at the north end.

Exterior: regular but not symmetrical three-window front of C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars, the first floor centre one containing rectangular panes of leaded glass. The passage front doorway (No 1) is left of centre and contains a C19 part-glazed plank door behind a C20 tile-roofed porch and the front doorway to No 2 at the right end contains a C20 part-glazed C20 door behind a contemporary thatch-roofed porch. The main roof is half-hipped to right and at the left end is hipped and carried down over the outshot there. A small woodshed projects forward from
this outshot with its own hipped roof.

Interior: only No. 1 Old Post Office was available for inspection at the time of this survey and here much of the early fabric is hidden by C19 and C20 plaster. Furthermore some of the evidence is confusing. For instance a probably C16 or early C17 crossbeam of large scantling is exposed along the left (north) side of the passage. The outer corner is square but the inner edge is chamfered with step stops and it runs across the back of the axial stack in the left room. Also its soffit contains a series of mortises and stave holes from a large-framed partition and the existing passage partition immediately to left contains an early C17 oak Tudor arch doorway with chamfered surround. Has this crossbeam been reset here? The partition along the right (south) side of the passage and the stairs the other side are C19. The crossbeam in the right room is plastered over but evidently of large scantling and the fireplace here is blocked by a C20 grate. In the left room are two early C17 chamfered and step-stopped half beams. The fireplace is stone rubble with a chamfered oak lintel. An alcove in the front wall in front of the stack marks the site of a former newel stair.

The roof of No 1 is carried on four side-pegged jointed crucks, one of them with chamfered arch braces. Although the roofspace is inaccessible part of it at least is known to smoke-blackened from an open hearth since the owner remembers piles of black and sooted thatch from the last thatching. This is an intriguing and attractive building. The arch-braced roof truss indicates a high status late medieval farmhouse. Great care should be taken during any building or modernisation works here lest C16 or C17 features be disturbed.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

86632

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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