Description

HIGH BICKINGTON LOWER VILLAGE, High Bickington
SS 59 20
14/105 Hour Cottage
-
II

Farmhouse, later divided, now house. Probably late C16 or early C17, possibly
enlarged in the late C17 or later, and altered and partly rebuilt in the late C19 or
early C20. Rendered over stone rubble and cob, the right-hand end wall rebuilt in
uncoursed stone rubble with some red brick dressings. Gable-ended Welsh-slate roof
(thatched until c. 1930). Rendered stone lateral stack with rendered brick shaft to
front and brick end stack to left.
Plan and development: Three-room plan sited at right angles to the road, facing south
(ground falls to left). The central hall has a large external lateral stack to the
front with an integral full-height square bay to the left and possibly formerly with
a staircase in the projection to the right, unheated small inner room to the right
(present kitchen) and probable former service room to the left with integral end
stack and opposed doorways (now blocked) to right. The former inner room was
probably converted to the kitchen in the late C19 or early C20 when the gable end was
rebuilt and the present front door inserted, with the staircase rising from the
entrance lobby. House reroofed c. 1930. Late C20 alterations included the partial
removal of the dividing wall between the hall and kitchen, the kitchen extension to
the rear and the glazed porch. Two storeys.
Exterior: Asymmetrically-fenestrated front; pair of first-floor C19 two-light wooden
casements flanking the stack, ground-floor C19 three-light wooden casement in bay to
left of stack and pair of ground-floor 2-light wooden casements to left, the right-
hand one in place of a former doorway (see new plaster below). C19 half-glazed door
to the right of the stack with a C20 lean-to glazed porch. The right-hand gable end
has first-floor and ground-floor 2-light wooden casements with brick segmental-arched
heads, the first-floor window C19 and the ground floor window widened in the C20.
Pair of C20 French casements in the rear wall of the hall (replacing a window).
Interior: Masonry wall between hall and left-hand (former service) room. Hall has
c.1600 cambered chamfered cross beam and half-beam to left with stepped straight cut
stops. Circa 1600 fireplace with stone jambs and cambered chamfered wooden lintel
with straight cut stops. U-plan bench in bay to right of fireplace. Evidence of
blocked former stair to left of fireplace. Wall between hall and former inner room
(present kitchen) partly removed during the C20 alterations, revealing the head beam
of a former wooden screen (see mortices). Left-hand ground-floor room (former
service room) has a C17 fireplace with splayed stone jambs, chamfered wooden lintel
with curved runout stops and cloam oven to right with door. Plastered ceiling.
South-west (front) window has jambs continuing down to floor level. Roof mostly
rebuilt c.1930. One late C16/early C17 truss survives (without smoke blackening)
with straight principals and cranked pegged notched halved lap-jointed collar. Roof
formerly with threaded purlins.
This was formerly Lower Farmhouse, now superseded by a C20 house (not included on
this list).

Listing NGR: SS5995920372

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26440142

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)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)