31, HIGH STREET

Details

BRUTON

280/8/88 HIGH STREET 29-AUG-84 (North side) 31

GV II House. Circa late C13; reconstructed 1453/4; partly rebuilt circa C16/17 and remodelled C18. Timber-framed, largely rebuilt in stone rubble, partly rendered. Pantile roof with gabled cros-wing on left. Stone axial stack with tall brick shaft. PLAN: Hall and through-passage on right [NE] with cross-wing on left [SW]. The beam in the cellar of the cross-wing has been tree-ring dated 1272-1318, but the cross-wing above was reconstructed in the mid C15 [1453/5 tree-ring date]. The hall and through-passage range was rebuilt circa C16/17 as 2 storeys with a stair turret at the rear of the hall and the whole house was remodelled in the C18 when an axial partition was inserted into the hall forming a hall at the back and parlour or kitchen at the front. It is uncertain whether the house originally extended to the north on the other side of the through-passage or whether the through-passage lead to a service range at the back. In the late C19 a single-storey extension was built behind the cross-wing. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. 3-bay south east front with slightly projecting gabled cross-wing to left with 9-pane sashes on ground floor and canted oriel above with sash and cornice continued over small flanking 4-pane sahes. Main range to right has 2-light casement with glazing bars on ground floor and wide through-passage doorway on right with panelled double-doors. Carved stone corbel head above doorway, probably from the demolished Bruton Abbey. Rear [north west], projecting stair turret on left, small gable on right above late C19 flat roof single-story extension; various small casements, sashes and glazed door to left of centre. INTERIOR: C18 and C19 joinery including panelled doors and dado in hall at back. Former hall has deeply chamfered cross-beams with stops and an exposed unchamfered beam at the high end associated with the timber-framed cross-wing; fireplace in the stack backing onto the through-passage with Victorian fireplace flanked by cupboards with panelled doors. Newel stairs in stair turret at rear of hall. Hall chamber has exposed timber-frame wall of cross-wing with tension-braces and traces of smoke-blackening from open-hearth fire of former open hall. Cross-wing has some exposed timber-framing on the first floor, including wall-framing with curved tension-braces and chamfered jowled post on SW side and a coved ceiling in the front chamber. the 3-bay roof of the former hall has collar-trusses with cranked collars, wind-braces, curved tenoned or threaded purlins, diagonal ridgepiece and re-set common-rafters; possible traces of smoke-blackening. 2-bay cross-wing roof [tree-ring dated 1453/4] truncated north west bay, chamfered arch-braced trusses, straight collars with raking struts above, the principals jowled at the top to form ogee pointed apex; common-rafter couples possibly re-set. Cellar of cross-wing has large chamfered cross-beam [tree-ring dated 1272-1318] supported at NE end on massive chamfered curved brace rising from floor and mortice-and-tenoned into the soffit of the beam, the SW end of the beam with scarf joint [splayed and tabled with under-squinted abutments, secured by folding wedges and eight face-pegs], the brace missing and supported on a pier, mortices for floor joists that are re-set above; stone winder stairs to ground floor. An interesting town house of late C13 origins. SOURCES: [1] Somerset and South Avon Vernacular Buildings Research Group report 1994/5. [2] Somerset Dendrochronology Project 1996/7. [3] Penoyre, J and J, Some Bruton Town Houses, Somerset Archaeology and Natural History 1996, pp 127 and 128.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

261561

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Somerset Dendrochronology Project, (1996/7)
Penoyre, J, J, , Somerset Archaeology and Natural History in Some Bruton Town Houses, (1996), 127-8

Other
(1994/5)

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