Description

DUNKESWELL DUNKESWELL
ST 10 NW
5/26 7 Dunkeswell Post Office, Bankside
- Cottage and Spring Cottage
GV II
2 adjoining cottages, one including the Post Office. Late C17 - early C18 with C18
and C19 extensions, Spring Cottage was thoroughly refurbished in 1987. Mostly
plastered local stone rubble with some cob; stone rubble stacks topped with C19 and
C20 brick; thatch roof.
Plan and development: L-plan building. The main block faces south-west and it is
occupied by the Post Office and Bankside Cottage. This has a 3-room plan. The
right (south-east) room is narrower and lower than the rest of the main block and it
has a gable-end stack. The centre room has an axial stack backing onto the right
end room and the left room (now used as the Post Office) has a rear lateral stack.
There was once a through-passage between the left and centre rooms but the rear of
this passage was blocked in the C20 by the staircase and a bathroom. Spring Cottage
is a 2-room plan cottage projecting at right angles to rear of the left room of the
front block. The first room of Spring Cottage shares the stack behind the Post
Office; it serves back-to-back fireplaces.
Spring Cottage has been very thoroughly refurnished but it seems that it and the
Post Office room at the front was the late C17 - early C18 house. The passage and
centre room of Beckside Cottage may be contemporary or an C18 addition. The stack
in the centre room may be a C20 insertion. The right end room is probably a C19
addition.
Both are 2 storeys with a C20 single storey kitchen extension (belonging to Beckside
Cottage) in the angle of the 2 wings.
Exterior: the main block (Post Office and Beckside Cottage) has a regular 3:1
window front of C20 casements with leaded glass in effect of rectangular panes. The
former passage front doorway and the Post Office front doorway further left both
contain C20 doors behind contemporary thatch-roofed porches. The roof is hipped to
left and gable-ended to right. Spring Cottage has C20 casements with glazing bars,
a C20 door and the roof is gable-ended.
Interior: in the main block (the Post Office and Beckside Cottage) no carpentry
detail is exposed in the right end room and the fireplace is a C20 grate. In the
centre room there is a chamfered crossbeam witn runout stops and the fireplace here
is another C20 grate. No beam shows in the Post Office but the chamfered oak lintel
of a large fireplace is exposed here. The roof is inaccessible although the bases
of straight principals show, their large scantling suggesting late C17 or C18 A-
frame trusses. In Spring Cottage nearly all the carpentry (including the roof
structure) was replaced in 1987 although there is a stone rubble fireplace with a
chamfered oak lintel and (in the same room) a chamfered and step-stopped crossbeam.
Both are late C17.
This building forms a group with other traditional thatch-roofed houses in the
vicinity of the Church of St Nicholas (q.v).

Listing NGR: ST1406907664

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26390448

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

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)