Description

KINGSTEIGNTON GAPPAH LANE SX 87 NE 4/137 Gappah Cottage

- II

House. C17, possibly a remodelling of an early C16 house. Whitewashed plastered cob on stone rubble footings; C20 tiled roof (formerly thatched), gabled at ends; axial stack, projecting left end stack. The present plan is single depth, 3 rooms wide with C17 features. The surviving arrangement suggests a 3 room and through passage plan with the lower end missing, the passage at the right end converted to a bathroom with the front door blocked; a hall/kitchen in the centre with an axial stack backing on to the passage and a narrow inner room at the left, possibly originally unheated with a stack added in the C18. The problem with this interpretation is the siting of the house in relation to the road which does not allow room for a lower end to the right of the passage: thus it can only be assumed either that the house predates the road, or that the C17 plan was 2 rooms and an end passage, an arrangement in the county without convincing precedents. There are 2 entrances on the rear wall, the rear right entrance to the former passage and a rear left entrance (now blocked) leading into the inner room: both doorways are C19. The rear right doorway opens into a small lobby which gives access to the room in the former passage, to the C17 hall and to a rounded projecting rear stair turret. Without access to the apex of the roof it is not possible to prove whether the building is, in fact, an early C16 open hall house, remodelled in the C17. The stair turret, however, does not appear to be part of the original build and a half beam in the hall suggests that the room over the passage may have jettied into the hall before the stack was inserted. It seems possible, therefore, that this was an open hall house. 2 storeys. On the rear elevation the tiled roof is carried down as a pentice on posts over the rounded stair turret and forms a porch over the adjacent doorway. Both rear doors are C19 plank and stud, characteristic of the Clifford Estate houses. Interior : C17 features survive in the hall: the open fireplace has stone jambs (right hand jamb rebuilt when the bread oven was removed) and a lintel with scroll stops. Chamfered cross beam with scroll stops, plank and muntin screen between hall and inner room, the planks plastered over due to decay, the muntins chamfered and scroll-stopped at hall bench level. Good 2 plank C17 or C18 door between hall and entrance lobby. The inner room has a C20 grate and a niche in the end wall. Chamfered stopped doorway to wide newel stair with timber treads and a blocked slit window in the turret under the stairs. In the first floor rooms side-pegged jointed cruck trusses are visible. The foot of 1 truss, about 1 1/2 metres above ground, is visible in the cupboard under the stairs. It has no visible means of support. The principal first floor room has a C19 fireplace with an open grate. Gappah Cottage is in a prominent site adjacent to the road, the rear stair turret is an especially attractive feature of the exterior and interior features are good. The roof timbers are likely to be medieval.

Listing NGR: SX8631077394

External Links

• Wikidata Q26389306

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Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair