Description

SS 62 NW CHITTLEHAMTON HIGH STREET (south side),
Chittlehampton
1/144 Dinnacombes

-

GV II

Reputedly a former longhouse, now private dwelling. Early to mid C16, with late C16
alterations and some C20 alterations following fire in 1985. Painted rendered stone
rubble and cob. Thatch roof with gable ends. Tall front lateral hall stack with
tapered cap. Small rendered ridge stack inserted in C20 to lower end.
Plan: 3-room-and-through-passage plan with the upper storey carried over wide
carriageway at left (lower end) and thatched outshuts to rear of lower end and hall,
the latter enclosing a stair turret.
DeveloDment: former open hall house of 4 bays, the lower end to left used as a
lofted outbuilding until circa 1980, when an end stack was inserted and it was only
partially floored to create a connecting gallery to the chambers over the
carriageway. Central drainage gully no longer survives, but there is said to have
been clear evidence of it before the alterations. Low screen plank and muntin
partition to lower side of passage and full-height plank and muntin screens at
either end of the hall, with a narrow unheated inner room at the right end. The
evidence for smoke-blackening has been disturbed as a result of a thatch fire in
1985, but nevertheless appears to have been relatively light, suggesting the hall
remained open to the roof for only a short period, probably being ceiled in the late
C16, when the front stack was inserted, the 2-storey hall window bay built out, and
a winder staircase added in a rounded stair turret at the rear of the hall towards
its lower end. Probably in the C17, a dairy outshut was added to the rear upper end
of the hall and in the C18 an outshut to the rear of the lower end, with a fireplace
added across the angle at its front left-hand corner. The hall stack has a bread
oven but it is possible that cooking was also done in the rear outshut.
2 storeys. 4 window range. C19/C20 fenestration. All 2-light casements to upper
storey. Ground floor has wide cart entrance at left end, with C20 3-light and 2-
light casements to right under continuous timber lintel inserted in former entrance
to shippon. Shallow porch with slate leanto roof and C20 door to through-passage
doorway. 3 light hall window to right in 2 storey bay built out in line with stack.
2-light casement, 6 panes per light to inner room at right and; the upper storey is
blind but there is known to be a concealed mullion window; opposite it at the rear
is a 2 light casement, the right-hand light retaining its square leaded panes.
Small 2-light timber mullion window to stair turret.
Interior: despite late C20 alterations and thatch fire, the interior is of
considerable interest and retains much C16/C17 fabric. Lower end has cross ceiling
beam chamfered on upper face only, with evidence of former partition between
carriageway and lower end on lower face; loft floor removed and replaced with
partial flooring to gallery along the rear wall, leaving the roof trusses exposed
from ground floor level. Part of plank and muntin screen, 2 planks wide, survives
to front end between passage and lower end, the muntins chamfered, with chamfered
head beam surviving the length of the passage; the durns are inserted. C17
panelled door to rear through-passage doorway. The full height screen to the hall
side of the passage has chamfered head beam and muntins with diagonal cut stops, 4
planks wide to left, 3 planks wide to right of flat 4-centred arched doorway with
chamfered surround and reused C17 panelled doorway. Single chamfered cross ceiling
beam and hall fireplace lintel with hollow step stops. Dressed stone jambs and
bread oven to fireplace. Screen to upper end of hall, 7 planks wide, has head beam
and muntins chamfered on hall side only with diagonal cut stops, the doorway
narrowed by the insertion of a jamb. Chamfered surround to straight-headed doorway
through from the hall to dairy with old 3 plank door. Treads to under staircase
replaced in late C20. Outshut to rear of lower end has fireplace with rounded back.
The upper floor largely remodelled in late C20, but one panelled cupboard door
survives to chamber over inner room.
Roof structure: C20 roof superimposed over side pegged jointed cruck truss over
hall, the feet cut away and 2 raised cruck trusses over lower end, with trenched
purlins and diagonally set ridge purlin. The timbers, where possible to distinguish
from charring following the 1985 fire appear only slightly smoke-blackened. Roof
structure over inner room replaced in late C18 or early C19, and to chamber over
passageway in C20.

Listing NGR: SS6357225472

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26549573

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)