Description

CULMSTOCK MILLMOOR, Culmstock
ST 11 SW
10/57 Bridge House and Bridge Cottage
-
GV II

2 houses, formerly one house. C16 origins with late C17 - early C18 alterations,
thoroughly refurbished and enlarged in the mid C19. Plastered stone rubble and
plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks topped witn C19 and C20
brick; thatch roof, slate to mid C19 extension.
Plan and development: 2 adjoining houses in a building with an irregular plan
facing the river to the south. Bridge Cottage occupies the right (east) end of the
main block, nearest the road. It has a 2-room plan. The right end room has a gable-
end stack and the left room has an axial stack backing onto the right room. Rear
service outshots and rear entrance. Bridge House, to left (west), occupies the
remaining 2 rooms of the main block and they are heated by an axial stack between
serving back-to-back fireplaces. The left end room breaks forward from the main
front and connects to the mid C19 extension. This is built parallel to the main
block. It contains a corridor through the right end and the parlour room has a
gable-end stack, another on the right gable serves the first floor only. There is a
1-room plan heated service room to rear of the main block and secondary outshots
there. The mid C19 refurbishment and subdivision of the property have disguised all
evidence of the former layout of the house although there is evidence that the house
began as some kind of open hall house heated by an open hearth fire. Service room
to rear of the main block and secondary outshots there. Both houses are 2 storeys.
Exterior: the C19 extension has a 2-window front of large 16-pane sashes under a
low. segmental arches. The front doorway contains a part-glazed 6-panel door behind
a C20 gabled porch. The extension roof is gable-ended. The rest of the main block
has a regular 3-window front of C19 French windows with margin panes to the ground
floor and first floor C19 and C20 replacement casements containing rectangular panes
of leaded glass and thatch eyebrows over. The roof is hipped to left end and gable-
ended to right.
Interior: is largely the result of the mid C19 refurbishment. Only Bridge House
was available for inspection at the time of this survey. No carpentry detail is
exposed on the ground floor. The roof was not inspected but the bases of straight
principals show, their scantling large enough to suggest that they are late C17 or
C18 A-frame trusses. There is, however, in the party wall between the house and
cottage a side-pegged jointed cruck at a lower level than the present roof. It is
exposed and the builders reported that it was encrusted with soot proving that the
original open hall was heated by an open hearth fire. f
According to the owner of Bridge House a structural survey made of the whole
building circa 1965 reported "Jacobean panelling" in Bridge Cottage but it is not
known whether this is still there since the cottage was renovated after a fire
circa 1970.
Bridge House and Bridge Cottage form part of an attractive group of listed buildings
in the vicinity of Culmstock Bridge (q.v).

Listing NGR: ST1009613810

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26611414

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey