Description

SX 99 NE POLTIMORE POLTIMORE

5/158 The Towan House and
- Gretal Cottage
30.6.61
- II

House and outbuilding now 2 houses. Mid C17 with later modifications. Cob,
stone plinth, rendered; hipped and half hipped wheat reed thatched roof to the
Towan House, 2 storeys, and Gretal Cottage, single storeyed. The Towan House
probably originally a 3 room, cross-passage plan; Gretal Cottage possibly a
former farmbuilding attached to the present Towan House. Internal right-hand end
stack and rear external stack, both with brick shafts. Front: The Towan House
with scattered fenestration; planked door with moulded surround under C19 slate,
gabled, boarded porch supported by shaped struts; large stair-turret bulge to
left with single-light window now deeply inset; two 2-light windows to first
floor, 1 single-light and one 2-light window to ground floor. All timber
casements, C20. Gretal Cottage with planked door under C19 slate-roofed porch
supported by timber posts; to the left a 3-light window with 10 leaded panes to
each light, and retaining its ring catch, all C18. 2-light C20 casement window
to right. Rear of The Towan House with three 2-light windows above, 2 below; one
entrance, 3 buttresses. C20 right-hand lean-to extension. Interior: The Towan
House : left-hand room with chamfered beam and fireplace with timber lintel,
chamfered with scroll stop, stone jambs, and back with remains of oven; lath and
plaster screen divides this from the adjoining room (Hall) which has a beam
morticed to receive tenons of a screen now destroyed. Staircase insitu. Coat of
arms dated 1666 (possibly 1686). Roof: visible only from upper rooms : 3
principals, trenched purlins, collar side pegged and morticed. Raised floor
level between Hall and adjoining rooms. One door with fielded panels. Gretal
Cottage roof of 2 principals, one reinforced.

Listing NGR: SX9649196934

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)