Description

DUNSFORD REEDY HILL, (south side), Dunsford
SX 88 NW

6/61 Lewis Hill

11.ll.52

GV II *

House. Circa late C15 origins, circa late C16 remodelling, substantial C20
renovations. Whitewashed rendered cob; thatched roof hipped at left end, hipped at
end of wing; axial stack with granite ashlar shaft projecting front lateral stack
with similar shaft.
The present plan is a main range, 3-rooms wide, formerly with through passage, the
hall stack backing on to the passage and a front lateral stack heating the inner room
to the right; rear kitchen wing; right-hand cross wing formerly partly in use as hay
barn. The early core is a high status medieval open hallhouse, probably divided by
low screens. The house was floored over in several phases, probably beginning with
the inner room which was provided with a fine first floor chamber with an ornamental
plaster ceiling and a co-eval fireplace served by the front lateral stack. The 2-
storey porch may also date from this phase;finally the hall with a stack inserted
backing on to the through passage and a granite newel stair adjacent to the stack.
The function of the cross wing is puzzling. The remains of a cobbled floor indicate
an internal open drainage system and there is a truncated cob stack on the right-hand
wall. The rear kitchen wing may be an C18 addition. Substantial restoration work
carried out in the C20 includes refenestration.
2 storeys. Irregular 4-window front to the main range, the right-hand end with a
slightly higher roofline and a 2-storey gabled porch to the former passage left of
centre. Fenestration of C20 artificial stone mullioned windows of 1, 2, 3 and 4
lights; 2 first-floor gabled dormers, l transomed stair window to left of porch.
Interior A number of individually outstanding features survive. Of the medieval
house 2 arched brace jointed cruck trusses (1 brace missing) with some wind braces
are visible on the first floor. The jointed crucks are neatly pegged with 5-face
pegs. No access to apex at time of survey (1985) but smoke-blackening is said to
extend the full length of the hall and inner room ie: on either side of the
ornamental plaster ceiling over the inner room. The cambered lintel of the inner
doorway of the porch may also be medieval. The C16 decorated plaster ceiling to
first floor room right is notable. A moulded cornice is carried out round the
principals and in the centre rustic animal motifs are divided by foliage stem ribs
(Period One, French). A former fireplace had a stylistically similar overmantel,
fragments of which have been reused as the overmantel of the room below, which has a
fireplace with a replaced lintel but some rare surviving chequered plasterwork on the
internal walls of the hearth. The cross beam and 2 half beams in this room are
particularly fine, ovolo-moulded with moulded bar step stops. The open hall
fireplace has 1 granite monolith and one stone rubble jamb; chamfered stopped lintel.
The adjacent newel stair has granite steps. An oak plank and muntin screen on the
other side of the stack partitions the hall from the former passage. The outer
doorway of the porch has an ovolo-moulded lintel. The fireplace in the cross wing
has a chamfered timber lintel carried down on to the stone rubble jambs. A section
of cobbles in front of this fireplace includes the evidence of an open stone drain
which formerly ran diagonally across the floor of the wing. Other features of
interest survive, not necessarily in situ. The quality of the C20 joinery is high.
An important medieval house with some notable later features.

Listing NGR: SX8135089256

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535514

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)