Brownings Cottage

Details

DUNSFORD BRITON STREET LANE, (east side), SX 88 NW Dunsford

6/38 Brownings Cottage

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30.6.61

GV II

Small cottage. C17 or earlier origins, alterations of the 1950s. Whitewashed rendered cob on stone rubble footings; asbestos slate roof (formerly thatched), gabled at ends; left end stack, axial stack. The present plan is an interesting survival of what was a carpenter's shop at the left end with an adjacent small C17 single depth cottage, at the right end. The cottage has 2 rooms, the principal room is a hall to the left heated by a stack backing on to a cross entry (opposed front and rear doors), which may originally have been a passage, the right-hand (lower end) partition missing. The hall has a winder stair against the rear wall in line with the stack. A small room to the right of the cross entry may have been a store. The former carpenter's shop at the left end is now used as a sitting room but is still single storey; it may be a later addition to the cottage but a pegged doorway between the cottage and the shop suggests that it is probably no later than the C18 and it is likely to have had a separate entrance on the front before the present C20 door was inserted. In the 1950s the thatch was replaced and the eaves have since been raised. Single storey to the left, 2 storey to the centre and right. Irregular 2-window front with no first floor windows to the front elevation. To the right of the axial stack the roof is brought down as a pentice over a cambered chamfered doorframe with a plank and cover strip front door. To the right of the front door the half-room is slightly advanced and clad with weatherboarding. To the left a half-glazed C20 front door into the former carpenter's shop is flanked by 2-light casements, 4 panes per light, the right-hand casement lighting the hall which has a large semi-circular projecting bread oven to the axial stack. Interior considerable survival of C17 carpentry and joinery for such a small building. The hall fireplace has been partly blocked by a C20 grate but the fireplace has a chamfered timber lintel resting on a stone rubble jamb at the front wall. A chamfered half beam with bar stops in front of the stack may indicate a jetty. There is a similar half-beam against the wall between the hall and carpenter's shop. The lintel over the doorway into the hall between the stack and the stair is chamfered and stopped and a chamfered doorway with step stops on the first floor leads into the right-hand first floor room. A large chamfered cross beam marks the right-hand side of the cross entry and the half-room has exposed joists. No access to roofspace at time of survey (1985) but no principal rafters are visible in the first floor rooms and it seems likely that they have been replaced. Brownings Cottage is a rare survival of a single-storey craftsman's shop with a small adjoining C17 cottage. It is one of 3 early houses on the east side of Briton Street Lan which leads up to the centre of Dunsford village.

Listing NGR: SX8135588960

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

399768

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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