Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 18 January 2023 to correct name and reformat the text to current standards

SS 71 SW
6/31

CHULMLEIGH
CHELDON
Bullsmead

(Formerly listed as Bullmead)

GV
II
Cottage. C17, remodelled and extended in C19 with C20 alterations. Unrendered stone rubble and some cob to side and rear walls. Pantiled roof with gable end brick shafts to stone rubble stacks.

Plan: two room plan, formerly with direct entry into each room, the left-hand doorway blocked in C20 and window inserted. Two short two storey gabled-ended wings to rear. C17 plan obscured by later alterations, but the core is confined to the right-hand room which has good quality C17 moulded ceiling beams and fireplace lintel. Former staircase in left-hand rear corner removed in late C20, said to be a C19 insertion. Solid cob wall partition between the two principal rooms has had doorway cut through in C20; the cottage was until recently in two occupations, and the C19 remodelling and reforming, therefore created a virtually symmetrical mirror plan pair of cottages, with a staircase, also now removed, formerly in the right-hand corner of the left-hand room. Partitions originally created passages to the adjacent front entrances, but these have also been removed. Apparently C19 outshots to rear of each cottage rebuilt as two two-storeyed gable-ended rear wings in late C20, the right-wing containing staircase. The solid cob partition wall dividing the two front principal rooms is certainly massive enough to have been a gable end wall, and there are no C17 features to the former left-hand cottage. The quality of the C17 carpentry to the right-hand room makes it unlikely that this was originally a one-room plan cottage; nevertheless, there is no visible evidence surviving to suggest it was once more extensive.

Exterior: two storeys. Four window range. C20 fenestration to upper storey, principally late C19/early C20 fenestration to ground floor, all two-light casements, six panes per light, except to blocked doorway which has had two-light casement eight panes per light inserted. All ground floor openings have rough stone lintels.

Interior: right-hand room has two cross ceiling beams and end bressumer, ovolo-moulded with elaborate bar and hollow step stops carved to a rams horn shape and with incised patterning. Ovolo-moulded timber fireplace lintel with similarly enriched stops. Left-hand room has C19 cambered brick arch to fireplace and single unchamfered cross ceiling beam. Both fireplaces have bread ovens.

Roof: single C17 truss over right-hand room with straight principals with typical C17 dovetail style collar and trenched purlins. Early C19 roof structure over left-hand room with principals of light scantling.

Listing NGR: SS7343213445

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26459593

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

• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6