Description

SX 78 NW CHAGFORD

4/81 Westcott Cottage
-
GV II*

House. Early C16 with C17 improvements; C20 kitchen extension. Coursed blocks of
granite ashlar with massive quoins and some granite stone rubble patching; granite
stacks, the original 1 with a granite ashlar chimney shaft; thatch roof, slate to
kitchen extension.
Plan and development: 2-room plan cottage facing east. The larger right (northern)
room has an end stack and the smaller left room has a rear lateral stack. Kitchen
extension projecting to rear of left room. The original hall house was open to the
roof from end to end, divided by low partitions and heated by an open hearth fire.
House was floored probably in the early C17 when the end stack was inserted. Rear
lateral stack could be as late as C19. 2 storeys.
Exterior: not quite symmetrical 3-window front of C20 casements with glazing bars
and central doorway contains C20 French window. Roof is gable-ended. Right end wall
is blind and has late C19-early C20 store with leanto corrugated iron roof against
it. Left end wall includes a first floor C17 2-light granite window with chamfered
mullion, plain hoodmould and contains rectangular panes of leaded glass.
Interior. The oldest feature is the early C16 3-bay roof. Both are A-frame trusses
but the right (northern) one has chamfered arch-braces. The butt purlins are
chamfered with runout stops. The whole roof including the underside of the thatch is
smoke-blackened from an open hearth fire. Probably in the early C17 the house was
floored and the end stack added. The crossbeams are soffit-chamfered, the right one
with straight cut stops at the front end only. There is no indication of where
contemporary partitions were. The ground floor fireplace is now blocked by a C20
grate (if indeed there was one here earlier). Above, at first floor level, 2 granite
ashlar corbels project from the wall; hollow-chamfered on their inner soffit edges.
These are probably the remains of a hooded fireplace.
This is a fascinating house. The late medieval roof is the most sophisticated
example of carpentry from that time in the parish and yet it is quite a small house.
If the corbels indicate a hooded fireplace it may have been converted to some kind of
first floor hall. Another explanation may be that it was a wing of nearby Westcott
Farmhouse (q.v.), but there is no evidence to prove this. There is an irregular
joint on the back wall and much of it is patched with granite stone rubble but the
ashlar masonry seems to indicate that the original house was the same size as the
present one.

Listing NGR: SX7101187637

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17537494

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)