Description

SY 08 NE NEWTON POPPLEFORD HIGH STREET,
AND HARPFORD Newton Poppleford
5/70 Nos 1 and 2 Church Green
30.6.61 Cottages

GV II

2 cottages, occupying part of an original larger house. Late c15-early C16 with
major later C16 and C17 improvements, subdivided in late C18 or C19. Plastered cob
on stone rubble footings; stone rubble and brick stacks topped with C19 and C20
brick; thatch roof, slate to service extension of No.1.
2 cottages facing north. No.1 occupied the 2-room inner room end to the left (east)
and No.2 occupies the hall and through-passage of the original 3-, later 4-room-and-
through-passage plan house. The service end adjoining to right (west) has been
demolished and completely rebuilt. The hall (No.2) has a large projecting front
lateral stack. Of the 2 rooms of No.1 the inner has a brick rear lateral stack
(probably a C19 rebuild of the original) and the outer room a late C18-early C19 end
stack. The inner room also contains a rear projecting newel turret. There is a C19
single storey service outshot projecting at right angles to rear of the outer room
serving No.1. In No.2 the kitchen has been contrived into the rear section of the
hall. Main block is now 2 storeys throughout.
Overall irregular 4-window front of various C19 and C20 casements with glazing bars.
The doorway to No.1 is towards the left end and has a C17 oak frame with chamfered
surround and worn (probably scroll) stops. It contains C20 door and semi-conical
thatch hood. The front passage door to No.2 at the right end is C20. The large
hall stack is plastered but may be ashlar stone since it has weathered offsets. The
shaft has been replaced with brick. The roof is hipped to left and joins the roof
of the adjoining house to right. The rear wall includes the remains of a tiny
unglazed C17 oak 2-light window frame with ovolo-moulded mullions under the eaves in
the main inner room chamber (No.1).
Good interior of a house with a long structural history. The oldest feature exposed
is the roof truss at the upper end of the hall, now closed and forming the party
wall between the 2 cottages. It is probably a jointed cruck but the lower parts are
plastered over. Only the apex is exposed in the roofspace but this is enough to
show that it is late C15-early C16. The principals are held together here by a yoke
and the ends finished to clasp a square-set ridge purlin (Alcock's apex type H). It
is smoke-blackened on both sides indicating that the late C15-early C16 house was
open from end to end, divided by low partition screens and heated by an open hearth
fire. One of these low partition screens probably survives at the upper end of the
hall but is mostly hidden. Only at the rear end on the hall side is a shoulded-
headed doorway exposed but an oak plank-and-muntin screen may be assumed. Between
the passage and the hall (in No.2) the head beam of another oak plank-and-muntin
screen shows and more of the screen may survive plastered over towards the rear.
The inner room (No.1) was floored over first and the chamber was jettied over the
screen into the hall. On the hall side the large oak floor joists project with
rounded ends to carry the bressumer of the large-framed crosswall which infilled the
original truss. This probably took place in the mid C16. The crossbeam exposed in
No. 1 is of large scantling and soffit-chamfered with runout stops.
The fireplaces were probably added in the late C16. That in No. 1 is blocked (and
probably rebuilt) but the hall fireplace in No. 2 is exposed. It is large with
Beerstone ashlar sides, one containing a tiny fire-window light, and oak soffit-
chamfered lintel. The hall was floored over about the same time or a little later.
It has an intersecting beam ceiling with broad soffit-chamfers. The joists in each
panel run in opposite directions to those in the neighbouring panels. 6 of the 9
panels are exposed. The rest of the roof structure over the hall and passage was
replaced in the C18 and C19.
It seems that the inner room end (No. 1) was extended from 1 to 2 rooms in the early
C17. There is an oak crank-headed doorframe of that date in the rear wall from the
outer room to the later service extension. The roof truss over the inner room is
also of this date, a side-pegged jointed cruck with pegged and dovetail-shaped lap-
jointed collar. The inner first floor chamber has a relatively simple early C17
ceiling of ornamental plasterwork. There is a hand-run reeded cornice and
similarly-moulded ribs making diagonal crosses and the spaces filled with moulded
plaster thistle motifs.
The proximity of these cottages to the church and the relatively high standard of
craftsmanship suggests that this was a church house. However the moulded plaster
diagonal crosses and thistle motifs surely suggest St Andrew rather than St Luke.

Listing NGR: SY0853989731

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26434182

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record