Description

DARTINGTON
SX7861-SX7961 Droridge
13/92
9.2.61 II

House. Circa early C16 with circa mid C17 and late C17 rear wings;
restored late C20. Roughcast stone rubble. Delabole slate roof with
gabled ends. Rendered stone rubble front lateral stack and gable en d
stack to rear wing.
Plan: The plan of the original house is uncertain but it was certainly
open to the roof from end to end and probably 3 rooms and a through passage
divided by low screens; the lower end to the left. In the C17 it was
probably reduced in length by the removal of the inner room of the higher
end and truncating the lower end which may have been a shippon originally
and which remains unheated. Probably at the same time the floors were
inserted and a lateral stack was built at the front of the hall. Also in
circa mid C17 a 2 storey kitchen wing was added to the rear of the lower
end with a gable end stack and smoking chamber. In circa late C17 an
unheated 2 storey wing was added to the rear of the higher end; the chamber
above may have been heated but the corbelled gable end stack seems to be a
later addition. The porch to the front of the passage is probably a late
C17 or early C18 addition. In the late C20 the house was severely
restored. The farm building at the lower end was probably added in the C18
or at least some time after the original lower gable end wall; the farm
building is being converted into a separate house at the time of survey
1985.
Exterior: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical approximately 3 window front. C20 1,2
and 3-light casement with glazing bars. Passage doorway to left of centre
with a large chamfered shouldered wooden doorframe and heavy plank door
with wrought iron hinges; within a porch which has rendered side walls,
partly open front and a slate lean-to roof; inside the porch there are
benches on the side walls. to right of porch a large projecting front
lateral hall stack with set-offs. To right of the stack the hall window is
a C20 3-light casement. To the left of the doorway the 2 windows in the
lower room have C20 1 and 2-light casements and above there is a c19 3-
light casement in a gabled half-dormer. A circa late Cl9 gabled full
dormer in the roof above the porch.
Rear: 2 gabled wings; the C17 right hand wing behind the lower end has a
large projecting gable end stack with a rendered shaft with a tapered top,
and to left of stack a large projecting smoking-chamber gabled at top and
with small blocked opening. To left behind the higher end there is a later
C17 wing with a possible later corbelled stack at the apex of the gable end
with 2 rendered octagonal shafts and 2 windows on each floor with flat
stone arches; the gable end is flanked by 2 slender buttresses with cut-
offs. A later lean-to to the right of the higher end wing fills the space
between the 2 wings and has a plank door in a cambered stone arch opening.
C18/19 casements in the higher gable end of the main range; and a late C17
3-light casement on the higher side of the rear upper end wing.
Interior: much restored in late C20. The partitions on either side of the
passage appear to be C20, the ceilings are plastered over and some if not
all the beams may have been replaced. The hall's front lateral fireplace
and the gable end fireplace of the kitchen wing have replaced lintels, but
the smoking chamber to the side of the kitchen fireplace is unaltered and
has a corbelled stone roof. There is a small blocked window in the lower
end wall on the ground floor of the main range.
Roof: the medieval roof survives largely intact; most of the rafters have
been replaced but the 6-bay roof has 7 smoke-blackened trusses; straight
principals resting on the wall plates, only 3 have curved feet; the cranked
collars are morticed to the principals which have mortice and tenon jointed
apexes, the purlins are threaded but there seems to have been no ridge-
piece. The second truss from the higher right end may have been a closed
truss at one stage. The higher end truss is against the higher end wall
and the lower end truss is very close to the lowered end wall and both
trusses appear to be blackened on both sides but the end walls are both
clean and therefore the house probably originally extended further at
either end. The wing at the rear of the lower end has c17 trusses with
halved and notched lap-jointed collars secured with large nails and not
wooden pegs; it has butt purlins and possibly a threaded ridge-piece. The
wing at the rear of the higher end has roof trusses with morticed apexes
and collars lapped and mailed to the faces of the principals.

Listing NGR: SX7829561750

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26513832

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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)